Black Friday
by TKreativeTanke
Summary: For eight years Donatello kept a secret from his family. A friendship he made and long forgotten until... something happens for that friendship to return and the secret will be revealed. Will his family accept this?
1. Chapter 1: Walking with the Past

_Alrighty! This is my first Fanfic ever! And for those of you who read this fic before, this entire fic has entirely been edited! So... it's completely different then what I had before. XD I am really excited right now. _^_^ _Just to let you guys know before you read this that this story is not about shopping and sorts. I know this story is called "Black Friday", but I called this Fic "Black Friday" cause to me I believe that it's the first day for Christmas Season. Obviously it is but many people start their Christmas early, which there is nothing wrong with that. ^_^ Christmas is my FAVORITE holiday! XD _

_So... enjoy my Fanfic and please review, for we authors don't get payed for this, we do it for the fun of it! XD Also it's very grateful to get a review for all the hard work we do._ ^_^ _It's NOT easy, so... please review. And I do not accept flames._

_Also before you ask, no, I do not own TMNT. *sniff*_

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Chapter 1: Walking with the Past

The subway train came to a screeching halt as the sound stretched across the station. Martha stood a foot away from the train, waiting patiently for it to come to a complete stop. Her short, dark brown hair was taken away by the wind; as it swayed in her sight, the tips of it tickled lightly on her nose. Martha hesitated as a crowed formed behind her, waiting impatiently for the people inside of the train to leave. She was now trapped in between as the crowd grew closer. The teenaged girl paid no mind to them, but she was well aware that the mob was now only a few inches away from her. Shivering from the sudden cold breeze from the surface, Martha felt her body becoming numb. With so little space between her and the train she wanted to scream, but she didn't. She kept her ground and stayed silent. While she continued to give a blank stare at something that no one else could see.

Her past.

TMNT ^_^

"Mommy! Mommy! Where are we going? Where is the train taking us?" Little Martha jumped up and down while tugging on her mother's hand.

Mrs. Koch laughed at her daughter. Living hundred miles away from the city grounds in a very small town all her life made this all new to her. "Martha, haven't I already told you? We're going to Times Square." Mrs. Koch smiled at her. With so much energy and excitement in the young one, she squealed with joy. The mother couldn't help herself but to laugh.

Then, a sudden loud roaring sound erupted through one of the tunnels near them. Martha jumped from the sound and turned around to find a bright light was shining before her eyes. Before she had the chance to ask her mother, another sound came ringing through the train station. However, this sound was different then the first. It sounded as though someone were scraping their sharp, long nails against the chalk board. Martha quickly covered her ears until it stopped.

"Mommy, my ears hurt," said Martha after the train before them came to a halt. However, the young one's attention was drawn towards the people that came so sudden and crowded around them. Mrs. Koch was already aware of the crowd. She quickly glanced around them, keeping an eye out for any sign of danger. But her concentration was distracted by a sudden pressure around her right leg. She looked down and smiled at her young one. Her daughter was clutching her leg, taking away the feeling inside of it. Martha wasn't used to being around so many people, and it scared her a little; yet at the same time it was exciting. The mother sighed and bent down until her eyes met Martha's. She smiled again and gently pulled her daughter into a hug.

"It's all right Martha. There's nothing to be afraid of. I'm right here to protect you. That's what mothers do; they protect their little angels. Understand?"

"Yes, mommy."

Mrs. Koch pulled away from her and started to wiggle her nose against her daughter's. Her child laughed from the ticklish feeling upon her nose. After Martha settled down her mother stood straight up and realized that the crowd had already disappeared into the train. The tall woman, wearing a long brown coat, gently grabbed her daughter's hand and pulled her into the subway train.

TMNT ^_^

_Bing… Bong..._ The doors to the train slid opened. The sound from the intercom broke Martha from her thoughts. She shook her head slightly before walking inside. Avoiding the people that were already seated and the rest following behind, she quickly took a glance around the train. Finally she spotted a seat far away from everyone else. Martha took a deep breath while wrapping her black jacket around her as she made her way through. On her way a few people, already seated, stared at her. She hesitated, but fought the stares by ignoring them.

"Next stop. Times Square. Please stand back away from the doors. Thank you," announced the intercom. _Bing… Bong…_ Soon the subway doors slid closed. Martha sighed in relief as she took her seat and leaned back against it, slowly closing her eyes.

TMNT ^_^

"What does Times Square look like, mommy?" Martha leaned closer to her mother as they sat together. She felt so eager, wanting to know, as her eyes grew wide with glee. Mrs. Koch smiled, seeing those eyes always reminded her of her husband. But her smile soon faded into a sad frown. She almost broke into tears of the memories of her husband, but Martha stopped it from happening when she began to poke her mother in the stomach.

"Mommyyyyy, you didn't answer my question." After grabbing her mother's attention, Martha folded her arms and stuck her bottom lip out, she was pouting. Forgetting the depression, her mother giggled at this.

"You have to wait and see." Mrs. Koch gave her a smile. Soon her attention was drawn towards the sound of giggling. The mother then looked around for the source and found that some people seated near them were staring as well as giggling at them. She ignored them and continued on with her little conversation with her only daughter.

"What is Times Square like, mommy?" Martha, on the other hand, was completely oblivious to the stares, as though the fear of so many people around her had just disappeared. Mrs. Koch sighed and shook her head. She hadn't forgotten that Martha was always a curious little one, who wants to know everything beforehand.

"I can't tell you. It's a surprise." Mrs. Koch put her finger against her lips. Martha copied her with a little childish smile. "If I tell you, it won't be a surprise anymore."

"Ok…" Martha said in a low voice as she peered down at her feet, disappointed. Mrs. Koch leaned back against her seat and sighed, smiling at her daughter.

TMNT ^_^

As Martha stared at the floor of the train, a little smile crept onto her face. The memory of her mother and herself brought a warm feeling to her. After all day shivering from the cold she needed the warmth and welcomed it. As Martha sighed, she started coughing so sudden that she drew all the attention to herself. She ignored it, lifting her head up and letting her eyes look at her reflection from the window. Seeing her beautiful green eyes sparkle by reflecting the light from the ceiling it made her smile grow. Then she noticed, in her refection her necklace was swaying lightly around her neck. Slowly she reached for it and touched the familiar texture. She then took her necklace on the palm of her hand and stared at it for a short time before closing her hand over it.

That's when she froze in her place; a cold, chill feeling went through her. Martha instantly let go of her necklace and started coughing again, only this time it was worse. Once she stopped, her body began to shiver and it felt numb all over again. Gently she covered herself with her black jacket. No longer could she see the color purple of her shirt and her necklace in the reflection.

"Excuse me dear, but are you all right?"

Martha looked up and found an old woman standing before her. The woman appeared to be the same height as Martha. Her gray hair was up and behind her head in a little ball. She wore a long gray coat which appeared to be very old. Underneath the coat the woman was wearing a yellow dress covered with the design of flowers. On her feet she wore these huge black boots, while wrapped around her neck was a black scarf. Also, on the top of her head she wore a little black hat with a few flowers upon it. To Martha the woman appeared to be like the older version of Mary Poppins. The only things that were missing were her magical bag and her flying umbrella. The old woman sighed, becoming tired of standing; she sat down right next to Martha. "Oh dear me, that cough of yours doesn't sound so very good. It's this dreadful weather. It's always the same every year. I should know this since I've been living here all my life. It would be very wise for you to go and find something more suitable. That jacket of yours will do no good in this upcoming weather."

Martha felt very uncomfortable around this woman. She was being so nice to her, and yet Martha couldn't do anything, or say anything for that matter. She knew what she wanted to say, but her lips stayed shut. No matter how much she tried, she just couldn't do it. It's so simple to do, to say two simple words; but yet her lips wouldn't obey to say, "Thank you." After few minutes, the old woman was fast asleep. Martha sighed in defeat, while shifting herself in a comfortable position; she adjusted her jacket when her body continued to shiver.

TMNT ^_^

"Are we almost there, mommy?" Martha cuddled herself against her mother as she shivered from the cold air. New York City was farther up north from where they lived. With the weather being completely different then what they were use to, Mrs. Koch was worried that Martha might catch a cold. She held her daughter close while looking down at her.

"Almost." She said in a soft voice. Martha shifted under her mother's arms.

"Mommy? Why the beginning of winter? Couldn't we just go to New York City during summer when it's warm?" Her mother sighed while looking away.

"Martha, with your father… gone. I have to work to provide for us. I just don't have the time to plan our trip over the summer. Ever since your father passed, I have been working very hard to plan this trip for us with the time that we have. I understand that you're cold but the only thing that matters right now is that we are here, together." Martha looked up and smiled at her mother.

"Ok."

TMNT ^_^

No matter how hard she tried to hold them in, the tears easily escaped her eyes. Slowly they trickled down her face and then dropped making contact on the ground. She remembered it all too well. Unknown to her on that day, it was the last time she would see her father alive again.

Three years before she first came to the city, she remembered watching her father smiling happily while waving good-bye to his family. The next thing she knew, later on that day, there was a knock on the door and her mother answered it. A police man was standing at the entrance of their home. She watched, from a different room, the police man taking off his hat and saying something calmly to her mother. At the time she didn't know what the police man had said but whatever it was, she knew it wasn't good. For her mother fell down to her knees and began cry out so loud that Martha had to cover her ears. What happened was a nightmare. The rest of day Martha watched helplessly as her mother cried while the police man tried his best to comfort her. But his comfort did nothing to help.

She remembered her mother shouting at the man to leave, and so he did. Before he exited, he looked at Martha with a depressing look on his face. He sighed, shaking his head slowly, and left without saying another word. Later that night, Martha was still awake in her bed. At the time her mind was set on her mother, so she climbed out of bed and walked into her parents' room. She found her mother sitting on her bed with blood-shot eyes, holding onto a framed picture of her wedding. Martha silently climbed into her mother's lap and stared at her, waiting. After some time had passed, her mother put down the framed picture right next to them and leisurely put her arms around Martha. She held her daughter close in a tight grip, but not enough for it to hurt. She began rocking them both side to side while humming a familiar little lullaby. Once the lullaby ended she pulled her child away and looked into her worried eyes. She knows that she has to tell her, but she could not bear to see Martha after telling the truth.

On that day, for what happened, changed her life forever. Her father was dead. Those words put together in one sentence stunned her. Martha had tried her best to listen to her mother's explanation of what had happened. Earlier that day as her father was driving home from work, someone had rammed into him on the driver's side. The other driver hadn't been paying any attention until it was too late. It had been an instant death. Her mother had stopped talking as the two of them continued to cry, holding each other close. They had never let go of each other as they cried throughout the night. Not long after, they had falling asleep with tears still trapped in their eyes.

Martha's hands were now drowned into her own tears. That horrible memory never left her. It haunted her. Her hands began to shake; she had no control over them. Soon her body shook in fear as her mind shifted to another memory, a moment in life that she wished that it never had happened.

A few days after her father's death, her mother has been watching the news when suddenly the news came to a sudden alert. Martha had been eating her breakfast at the table when it came on. Both of their attentions had been drawn towards the television as the news lady started to recap the story of the crash a few days before. She began explaining about the man who survived from the crash. Once he was restored in the hospital, he'd be sent to trial for the death of Martha's father. Martha had been angry that he lived. She had wondered why it was her father that died and not him. The news lady continued on with the story until she was given the disturbing news which angered Martha even more. The man who had killed her father, who had taken him away from her forever, had escaped.

Martha trembled from those memories. Because of her father's death, her mother worked twice as much as she had before. She was tired every day when she came home from work at a very late hour. Martha missed spending time with her. She wished that there were something that she could do to help her as well as get to spend more time with her. But because of her young age at the time, she never got the chance. So after two years of working, her mother decided that she needed a vacation. She began saving her money. Finally after a year of saving, she had enough to have one. There was this one particular place that she always had wanted to go - New York City. Martha knew that her mother wanted to go there with her father way before she was born, but that dream had been taken away from her, by a careless man who should have been dead or locked up in jail to rot for the rest of his life. Martha clutched her hands into fists on how much she loathed that man for destroying her life forever.

_Bing… Bong..._ "We are now arriving at Times Square. Please make sure that you have all of your belongings. We are not responsible if they are lost or stolen. Thank you." _Bing… Bong… _Martha sighed while she wiped away her tears with the sleeve of her jacket. Soon the station quickly came into sight after the train began to slow down.

TMNT ^_^

"Looks like we're here." Mrs. Koch said after hearing the intercom. She could feel the train began slowing down beneath her feet. Outside of her window the lights from the station were approaching in the distance. Stopping herself from slipping off of her seat, Martha held tightly onto to her mother. When the subway train arrived at the station, mobs of people were already waiting outside. Martha jumped down off of her seat, squeezing herself through the crowd inside of the train to get a better look of the new surroundings. Like looking through a glass window of a toy store, Martha gasped with excitement at seeing so much happening all at once.

"Look Mommy! Mommy! Look!" Martha shouted, not even noticing everyone else was annoyed by her tone.

"What is it that I'm looking at?" After saying "excuse me" or "pardon me" for the hundredth time, Mrs. Koch made her way through and stood right next to her daughter.

"Look how many people there are! There so many! Mommy? How many people live here?" She looked up at her mother watching her gazing out the window. "Mommy?"

"Hmm? Oh yes, there are lots of people here. But there so many that we don't even know many there are, understand?" Martha nodded wildly as she smiled. But her smile soon faded when she noticed her mother's face changed from happiness to worry.

"Mommy? Are you ok?" Martha tugged on her mother's coat, grabbing her attention. Mrs. Koch sighed and bent down to her knees.

"Martha listen to me. You see how many people are out there, yes?" Her daughter nodded. "Well today is a very busy day around here. You see this many here in the station? Well up on the surface there are lots more." Martha eyes became wide as she put her hands to her mouth.

"Really?" Mrs. Koch nodded.

"I want you to do something for me, ok?"

Martha nodded again.

"I want you to stay close to me at all times. Never let go of my hand. I don't want to lose you here in this city. This city is massive compared to are little town back at home, ok?"

"Yes, mommy."

Mrs. Koch smiled and hugged her. She then stood straight up again, grabbing hold of her daughter's hand as they stood waiting for the doors to open. At the same time, Martha tightened her grip on her mother's hand and swallowed.

TMNT ^_^

_Bing... Bong..._ "Thank you for riding our express. Please stand back from the doors until there fully opened, and please come again. Thank you." _Bing… Bong..._ Once the doors were opened, Martha forced her way through. She fought against the crowd as they pushed themselves through. After she was free from the mob, she stood in the middle of the chaos as people hurried from left to right heading towards their designations. None paid any mind to her, only just a few stares and that was it, as they rushed on by. Ignoring them, Martha grasped her arms around her and looks around for the exit.

A slight breeze came from her right. Martha looked over to find the exit was far away from where she stood. She saw the light from the sun was shining itself down into the underground from the surface where Times Square stood. The only thing that was in her way was a rushing river of people hurrying in all sorts of different directions. There was no other way out, so she held her breath in as she pushed and shoved her way through. A few people yelled at her for getting in their way, but shouting was a waste of time; for her main focus was on getting out of there.

The cold breeze grew stronger the closer she came to the stairs. It lightly brushed against her face as her hair swayed back gently from the wind. She walked up the stairs in her own pace while remembering the sounds of the traffic, billions of voices talking all at once and the familiar pollution smell of New York City.

TMNT ^_^

Martha breathed in heavily. Who knew that getting to the stairs was a hard thing? Well in New York City it was almost impossible. She smiled after catching her breath and stood straight up.

"Let's do that again!" Martha shouted with glee. Mrs. Koch chuckled and shook her head; there were times when she didn't even understand her own daughter.

"Now now, that will be enough of that." Mrs. Koch gave her the eye.

"Okkkkey." Martha leaned back and forward again with her hands behind her back. Mrs. Koch chuckled again.

"Come here you." The mother quickly bent down and grabbed hold of Martha, she pulled her daughter closer. She had trapped her daughter in between her arms.

"Let go of me mommy!" Martha shouted happily. Her mother smirked at her.

"Oh! But I can't, not until you are tickled!" Martha laughed as her mother starts tickling her stomach. She squirmed under her mother's arms, trying to free herself from the tickling sensation. Mrs. Koch laughs along with her; then she picks her daughter up and kisses her on the forehead. Both of their laughter soon died down as Mrs. Koch sets her daughter down. "Alright that's enough of that. Now what did we come here for?" Mrs. Koch joked, looking around and pretending that she had forgotten. Martha giggled; knowing that her mother was just playing with her.

"Let's go mommy! Let's go!" Martha eagerly began pulling her mother's arm. She forced her mother to follow her up the stairs.

Mrs. Koch continued to laugh. "Alright alright, I'm coming."

Martha began running while pulling her mother up from behind. As they reached the top they were already panting for breath. Once their breathing began to slow down, Martha stood straight up and gasped at all the bright lights shining randomly before her eyes. Martha twirled around, taking everything in. Her mother was right about the surface. People were everywhere. Hearing so many voices talking all at once as well as the traffic was loud compared to back home. She even gazed up at the tall buildings covered with largest monitors that she had ever seen. All of them were so colorful before her eyes. She then turned her attention back to her mother as she, too, gazed around, seeing so much happening all at once. Jumping with joy she ran up and hugged her mother's legs.

"It's so beautiful mommy!"

Mrs. Koch smiled and hugged her daughter back.

"Yes, it surely is."

Martha pulled away from her and turned back around gazing at everything all over again. Mrs. Koch gently grabbed her hand and pulled right in front of her. "Come along, Martha. There's more to see."

"Really?" She was full of excitement, ready to see more that waited out there for her. Her mother gave her a smile and nods as they started walking down the sidewalk following the crowd together.

TMNT ^_^

The teenaged girl silently walked, facing down, following her past. At times she would gaze up, making sure that she was heading the right direction. But each time, for a split second, she would see her mother and her younger self walking ahead holding hands. They were invisible to everyone else; but only through her eyes they were ghosts from her past. She followed them, as they led her to the place that she came here for. That was when they halted in front of her with the crowed; she too stopped as well, standing only just a foot behind them.

TMNT ^_^

Mrs. Koch and her daughter halted with the rest of the crowd around them. "Stay close to me, Martha. We're about to cross a very busy street. People are going to be crossing the same time as we are. You must stay with me, for crossing a street can be very dangerous with so many of them crossing all at once." Martha tightened her grip again and swallowed.

"Yes, mommy."

TMNT ^_^

Martha hesitated before crossing the street. She knew on the other side it was there. The exact spot where the memory took place. She paced slowly as she crossed the street. Once she arrived on the other side, she walked right out of the traffic towards the closest building. She then leaned against the wall of a building, taking a deep breath while closing her eyes. Gently, she reached and squeezed her necklace under her hand. As one little tear fell from her eye, she slid herself down into a sitting position.

She remembered all too well that this was the place where it all began long ago.

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Please review! ^_^


	2. Chapter 2: The Little White Angel

Chapter 2: The Little White Angel

A wall of people surrounded them, only inches away. There wasn't much room for Martha to move. It was hard for her to stand in a small space without touching other people. She never noticed until then how short she was compared to others. She wished that she were taller. Even without looking she felt that everyone, besides her mother, was staring down at her. That scared her a little. She squeezed her mother's hand harder and stood closer to her. Just when she felt safe, her mother began walking away, taking her with her.

Martha then gazed up to see many different faces passing by in so many different directions. Only one face she did recognize. Standing across the street was a tall building covered by another huge monitor. Showing upon the monitor was the face of the red M&M, smiling down at her. Watching it as it looked all around Times Square, Martha smiled. M&M's were her favorite kind of candy. Tasting the delicious chocolate melting away inside her mouth upon her tongue brought her joy. Daydreaming about it made her tummy grumble. Martha blushed from the sound as she put her hand on top of her stomach. She looked down at it as though she were telling it to be quiet. While she was distracted, her grip loosened from her mother's hand, and just when it did, someone came and walked into her. The force caused her to fall and let go of her mother. She landed on her side.

"Oww!" She yelped from the pain in her shoulder.

"Stupid kid! Watch where you're going!" A man yelled at her while passing by. Martha stuck her tongue out at him.

"Jerk." She whispered while standing up and brushing the dirt off of her purple sweater and her pants. But when she looked up, to her horror, her mother was gone. Panicking, she looked all around; but her mother was no were in sight. "MOMMY!" Martha shouted, cupping her hands around her mouth. "MOMMY! MOMMYYYYYY!" No matter how many times she cried out, she received no answer. Frightened, Martha kept looking, turning her body from left to right; but none of the faces that passed by were her mother's. Her eyes started too well up with tears. Martha sobbed into her violet mittens while standing in the middle of the path as the chaos around her continued. Suddenly, before she knew it, people began to walk into her, pushing, shoving, so much that she fell again. Luckily, the impact wasn't as bad as the first because she caught herself with her hands. Scrambling up to her feet, she hurried on out of there, not wanting to know how it feels to get stepped on.

After getting herself out of the jungle of people, she took the time to catch some air before continuing her search for her mother. Martha grew worried as time ticked away. Walking aimlessly on the path, she kept on looking for her mother. Then in the corner of her eye in a split second a slit glimpse of a familiar long brown coat came into her sight. Instantly all of her attention was drawn towards where she last saw it. Right away she jolted, dodging anyone that was in her way. Tears were flying off of her face while breathing in air constantly that her throat started to hurt. But she didn't care for the main priority right then was to find her mother.

The color of blue upon the sky started to disappear as multiple different colors appeared. The sun was still hanging in the sky but it slowly drew closer and closer towards the west, getting ready to vanish for the night. Martha was out of breath. She leaned herself against a wall, holding herself up. How long was she running? She didn't know; but where could her mother have gone? She knew it was this way, but she found nothing. Martha continued to cry while coming down into a sitting position. Slowly she pulled her necklace out from where it was hidden underneath her sweater. She glanced at it for a few seconds before burying it into her arms.

"Mommy… mommy… where are you? I… I don't want to lose you too."

TMNT ^_^

"Miss? Miss? Are you alright? Please wake up. Miss?" Martha slowly opened her eyes. At first her vision was all blurry, while at the same time her mind couldn't comprehend where she was or what was happening. She looked around a bit as her sight gradually focused. She realized that she was still in Times Square. Suddenly she flinched after she felt something touched her shoulder. She gazed in front of her to find a young woman crouched down before her. She didn't appear to be much older than Martha. She looked about in her twenties. She wore a long purple winter jacket and a yellow scarf around her neck. She also wore dark brown pants. Her eye color was just like Martha's except they were a bit brighter then hers. Her hair was up behind her head in a ball just like the old woman that Martha met earlier that day, while the rest of the woman's hair was on top her forehead and a few strands of it dangled down on both sides of her face. The woman appeared to be a red head. Soon the young woman then let out a sigh of relief. "I'm sorry that I disturbed you but are you alright?" The young woman spoke in a calm, low voice filled with concern. But Martha kept silent, staring at her as if she were going to attack. Martha watched carefully every movement she made.

"So uh… she alright?"

Martha had not noticed until now that a man was standing behind the woman. She looked up and met gazing blue eyes. Her eyes widened. The young man, who appeared to be slightly older then the woman, was buffed. He wore a tan hoodie underneath a blue jacket and blue sweat pants. His hair was completely jet black and the style looked as though he got it from a caveman. After seeing him, Martha was frightened beyond belief. She watched as the woman stood and turned her attention towards him. Now was her chance; while they were distracted, she hurried up to her feet and ran. Never did she stop nor slow down; she kept on running. Hearing the cries of the woman shouting out to her made her ran faster. For a moment she looked back to find that the man and the woman were no longer in her sight.

"Should we go after her?"

"No. We would only make things worse." The woman shook her head.

"What do ya mean?" The man turned his gaze towards her.

"She's afraid of us. I don't know why, but if we chase after her we would only make things worse." The woman let out a sigh as the man gritted his teeth.

"Why she's afraid of us then? I mean we didn't do a thin' to her! We were just tryin' to help!" He shouted while waving his arms in the air.

"Calm down. I don't really think that she's actually afraid of us. There must be a reason, but that's a problem that she needs to take care of all on her own. I wish I could help; but I don't want to make things worse for her. She looked lost. I hope she'll be ok." The woman had a bit of sadness in her voice. The man gently wrapped his arm around her.

"Don't worry babe. She'll be alright."

TMNT ^_^

Martha jolted up instantly after hearing a small sound nearby. She soon felt something brushing against her leg. Martha looked down to find a little white kitten with the most gorgeous blue eyes that she ever saw, staring up at her. The little kitten meowed making her smile a little. Gently she reached over to her side and picked up the kitten; then she sat it down on her lap.

"Hello little kitty. Are you lost too?"

The kitten meowed again.

"Well, me too. I can't find my mommy. I know that she went this way but I don't see her. Did you lose your mommy too?"

The kitten didn't say anything; all it did was licking its paw and then brush it against its left ear. Martha watched the little kitten curiously, wondering what the little creature would do next, but it did nothing. "Do you have a name kitty?"

The kitten still didn't answer.

"Hmm… what should I call you then?" Martha ponders it. "I know! I shall call you Angel! Cause you're all white and fluffy! And angels are white and fluffy too!" Martha smiled proudly as Angel meowed softly then started licking its paw again. Martha was about to pet the little fur ball but it turned around, avoiding her touch, and began hissing at something. "What's wrong Angel?"

"And that's game! We win!" Martha heard a voice shouting beyond her. She gazed up and saw a gang of boys older than her playing street hockey. Angel hissed even louder, letting Martha know that these boys weren't friendly. Gradually standing up, Martha began walking on the sidewalk again, avoiding eye contact with any of the boys as she gazed around at her new surroundings. Apartment buildings lined up right next to each other on both sides of the street. Most of them were connected to each other with no space in between while some where apart with their own alley ways. Martha smiled at Angel. She felt a lot better now that the fur ball came along with her as it meowed and rushed to her side. But suddenly something small and black flew by her face. Martha jumped away in time to find a hockey puck had landed on the path before her. Her attention soon drifted towards where the hockey puck came from; but she realizes that the boys noticed her presence.

"Hey! Where do ya think yer goin'?"

Martha froze as a boy with spiky dark blond hair, red shades on top of his forehead, and wearing clothes that seemed not washed in weeks, came rollerblading over in her direction. He skidded to a halt just before the rest came and did the same right behind him. "This is our territory. If ya want to pass through ya have to pay the toll to us." He snickered at her. Martha looked at him funny.

"I don't remember anything saying that I had to pay." She put her hands to her hips. "And you're too young to own a territory. Only adults do."

The boy frowned at her. He then took a step closer, peering down at her. Angel started hissing again. Martha swallowed but she stood her ground against him and stared back.

"Look girly. I haven't seen ya around these parts before. So ya must be new here. Around these parts me and my boys own this area. So I'm just givin' ya a fair warnin' this time or I would of let my boys do the talkin'. The name's Jack; remember it! Ya got that?"

She nodded slowly.

"Good. Now pay up girly!" He held out his hand and gesturing it for the pay. Martha looked at his hand then back at him. Gritting her teeth, she slapped his hand.

"I'm not paying you anything! I don't even have any money!"

Jack chuckled at her. "Oh, there are other ways to pay than just money."

Martha looked at him before realizing what he meant. She backed away from him, covering her necklace from his sight.

"No! You can't have it!"

Angered, the boy grabbed the top part of her sweater and pulled her up from the ground. She struggled, trying to loosen his grip, but it didn't work. She then felt humiliated about how small she was. Even a boy around the age twelve could lift her up with one hand.

"Look, girly. Nobody says no to me! Now hand over the necklace if ya know what's good for ya!" Some of the gang members started cracking their knuckles or doing other things they do to prepare themselves for their "talk".

"Well someone just did!" Martha spat in his face; and then kicked his stomach as hard as she could. Jack let her drop to the ground as he screamed in pain.

"Why – ya – little – brat!" Jack tried to reach out and grab her, but because of the condition that he was in, Martha was too quick for him. She ducked under his arms; then rolled beneath his feet, appearing right behind him. Using the advantage, she kicked him in the back of his shin. With the gang distracted, as they watching their leader being beat up by a little girl, Martha took her chance and escaped.

The gang was oblivious that Martha was gone as they continued to watch and chuckle at their fallen leader. Jack growled after being humiliated in front of his own gang by a little girl. He crunched his fists and turned towards them with a stare that made them all silent. "What are ya all standin' around for? Get her!"

Martha was already out of breath, after using her energy earlier that day; she felt that she couldn't go on. She fell to her knees, clutching her side, feeling the cramps attacking her. Angel was still with her, trying to urge her to continue on. But it did nothing to get her back onto her feet.

"No… I can't… it hurts." Martha tried getting up, but she failed. Tears were streaming down her face as her side screamed in pain.

"There she is! Let's get her!" Martha looked back to find the gang wasn't far behind. Her heart raced with fear, knowing that the gang wanted revenge. Angel then meowed at her, taking her attention away from the gang, she turned to the fur ball's direction. Angel looked at her for a few seconds then turns as it heads towards an alley. Martha got the hint. Slowly she rose to her feet and followed Angel into the alley. She paused at the entrance of it, looking around for the kitten.

"Where did you go, Angel?" A little meow came from behind a few garbage cans near her. Martha looked behind them and found the kitten standing there. She smiled. "There you are." But Angel started hissing again while, at the same time, the sound of footsteps was coming closer. The gang was almost there. Martha hid with Angel behind the garbage cans and waited, holding her breath.

"She ran into this alley!" One of the gang members shouted.

"Good. She can't escape from us now. Start searchin' the area! I'll stand guard here in case she tries to get away."

Martha swallowed. The sounds of metal banging against the ground clatter everywhere. It wouldn't be long before they find her.

"Angel, I'm scared. Angel? Where did you…"

"AHHH! Get this thing off of me!"

Martha peeked out of her hiding place to witness Angel attacking Jack's leg. Jack fell down while trying his best to get the attacking fur ball off of him. Martha realized that Angel was attacking him to help her escape. She smiled; for she had only known the kitten for a few minutes; but it was already protecting her. She took that chance and hurried on out of there. But she soon came to a halt, looking back at the kitten. _No, it's not right for me to leave Angel behind._ Martha thought. But just before she could help Angel, Angel started hissing at her. Martha back away, now realizing that the kitten was telling her to run, but before she did she mouthed out the words "thank you." Soon, she turned and ran while whipping away the tears that escaped her eyes.

"Ya idiots! She's escapin'! Forget the dumb cat and go after her!"

_My side hurts really bad. I… can't run anymore. _Martha stopped dead in her tracks, breathing in gobs of air for her lungs, which demanded it. Having her hands on her knees for support she looked up to find a pier was just ahead of her. _Maybe if I could find a place to hide from those big fat meanies then my side won't hurt anymore._ As fast as she could, she made her way over towards the pier. Standing on the wooden path, she gazed around to find the best place to hide. Soon her attention fell upon a sewer entrance hanging out from a small cliff side, pouring a tiny bit of water onto the sandy beach. Martha smiled as she jumped down from the broad walk, she landed on her feet; then fell down on all fours. Luckily, the sandy surface made the landing less painful for her.

"She's at the pier!"

Hearing the gang made her scramble up to her feet; then pull herself into the sewer pipe. She walked deeper into it before resting her body and trying to calm her breathing. Martha sat herself next to the wall in a ball, waiting for the gang to leave in silence.

"Hey. Where did she go?" One of the gang members looked around aimlessly.

"Don't tell me ya lost her!" Jack yelled while pulling the gang member up by the top of his shirt.

"I swear Jack! I saw her heading this way! I swear!" The gang member pleaded mercy as he put his hands up in defense. Jack growled while throwing the gang member down on the sandy ground.

"She's somewhere around here! I know it! Search the area then come back to me if ya found anythin'!"

"Right!" All the gang members shouted at once before they began their search.

During the time Martha kept herself well hidden in the dark, hoping that none of them would find her. After what seemed like forever, all the gang members came back empty handed. Jack was furious on the outcome.

"Hey Jack! Do you think she's hiding in here?"

Martha's blood ran cold, for the gang member was pointing straight towards where she was. Jack came walking over; then took a slit glimpse inside before hitting the gang member on the head.

"Idiot! Don' cha know what that is? That's the sewers! There's no way she's hidin' in there 'cuz she's a girl! Girls don't like gettin' themselves dirty!"

Martha let out a sigh of relief.

"Then what are we suppose to do then?"

"We're goin' back to playin' some hockey. But if I ever see that girl again she's goin' to wish that she hadn't of messed with me!"

Martha shuddered from those words. _Now how I am going to find mommy? She has to be somewhere where those big fat meanies were, but they will try to hurt me and try taking my necklace away from me again._ Martha squeezed her necklace tightly in her hands; then began pressing it close against herself. After some time Martha pulled it away from her looking at the two familiar words covered into the clam shaped shell on the chain of her necklace. The necklace was very special in her eyes. The shell can be split apart from each other to create a second necklace, but each necklace can only have one word. One can have the word _Best_ and the other with the word _Friend_.

Once again she was alone, even Angel wasn't there to comfort her. Tears trembled down her face again as she sat there in a ball shape with her arms around her legs. Martha then buried her face into them, crying softly.

"I want my mommy…"

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Please review! ^_^


	3. Chapter 3: Promising Trust

Chapter 3: Promising Trust

Nightfall was coming as the sun began to set in the distances, disappearing behind the tall buildings of New York. The light at the sewer entrance slowly faded away as the darkness consumed inside the sewers. While alone under the surface of New York City, Martha continuously sobs into the sleeves of her purple sweater. She was trapped. The gang would be chasing after her again if she headed back the direction she came. As for the sewers, she was afraid of. It was a labyrinth. The tunnels will lead to nowhere. Be lost forever in the darkness.

Now that the sunlight was gone it was now the moon's turn to accompany her. But it did nothing to cheer her up. She wasn't aware of the change around her, but it didn't matter to her. The only thing that did matter is what she wants the most.

"Mommy… I… want my… mommy…" Her voice choked over her crying. She never has been away from her mother for so long now that she was beginning to lose hope of ever finding her. She sat there for a while now that her hearing was becoming use to the sounds which began to fade away. Her shoes were now soaked from the running water passing by. While her body began to feel tired after a long day running. Slowly her teary red eyes started to close as sleep was taking over. Before she shut her eyes completely her ears started to pick up something. A sound that was new and different.

Splashing. Something was coming towards her as the sound grew louder. Martha lifted her head while hearing her heart pounding away inside of her chest. The sensation of each of the splashes made her heart pound even faster. She closed her eyes once the sound was only a few feet away. Then it stopped. The splashing was gone, but her heart continued to pound away as she gradually reopened her eyes to find nothing. She looked around and still nothing was there.

_Where did the splashing go? Something must have made the splashing but I don't see anything._ Martha thought. She swallowed in fear, hoping that it wasn't something that came to harm her. Slowly she took a slight breath.

"Who… who's there?" Her voice was low and still cracked a little over her crying. She was now no longer alone, but silence was the only thing that answered back. Martha then squinted her eyes as she stared deep into the darkness of the sewer, as though she were waiting for something to happen. That's when she saw it. A tiny bit of movement came from the shadows. Something or someone was there. Martha frowned. _They're_ _hiding from me? Why?_ She did not like this, not one bit.

"Who's there?" She shouted. Her voice was louder than at first as it echoed through the sewers. The shadow moved again but these movements looked as though the sudden shout startled it. "I know that you're there." Her voice was a bit shaky for she was afraid. The shadow then froze in its place. Besides the running water passing by and the waves crashing against the shore, silence companied them. While in the distance a slight echo of drops can be heard falling and then splashing against the wet cement ground at the same beat of a clock ticking away.

"Are… are you ok?" A clam strange voice broke the silence. Martha swallowed while staring directly at the shadow. Then she looked away as she shifted her body closer to herself.

"I'm lost…" She spoke in a very low voice.

"How did you get lost?" Martha looked up again staring at the shadow. The voice sounded like it was coming from a boy. A boy around her age.

"I was with my mommy. But then I lost my mommy in this huge crowd of people."

"How did you get all the way down here?" Martha shifted again. She wasn't sure if she could trust whoever this is.

"I was looking for my mommy. But then these big fat meany boys came to me and one of them said that I had to pay to him cause I was in their territory. But I don't have any money. But he said that I could pay with something else other than just money. He wanted me to pay with my necklace but I said no."

"And then what happened?"

"He picked me up by my sweater and tried making me to give him my necklace. But I spited in his face and kicked him twice. Then I ran away."

The boy soon chuckled as Martha smiled to his laughter.

"Yeah, you should of seen him cry like a baby!"

Then he began to laugh while Martha's smile grew. But soon the laugher died down. "Did they hurt you?" His voice became serious.

Martha shook her head. "No, I was too fast."

The child in the shadows let out a sigh of relief. "Where do you live?"

Martha frowned. Remembering well from what her mother said to never tell any strangers very important information. "I can't tell you. My mommy told me not to talk to strangers."

"Well that is true." The boy said while nodding.

Remembering her mother, Martha's eyes started too welled up with tears. She then buried face into her arms once more.

"Oh… mommy… I want my mommy."

The boy moved closer. "Please, don't cry. I can help you find your mommy."

Martha glanced up as tears trickled down her face and swallowed. "You… you will?"

Silence fell upon the boy hiding in the shadows. For a moment he thought over something. Then he nodded.

"Definitely."

Martha whipped away her tears. "You're not going to hurt me, are you?"

Those words made the boy stunned for the moment. "Oh! No no no! I'm here help you. I would never do such a thing! That's dishonorable! Especially if I hit a girl." He looked down during while speaking the last few words.

Martha smiled of what he said while standing up and giggled a little. "Well good, because my mommy told me that boys should never hit girls." She smiled as she whipped the dirt off of her pants. "My name is Martha. What's yours?"

"Um… Donatello. But you can call me Donnie or Don. I don't mind."

Martha giggled again. His clam sweet shy voice made her feel a lot better inside.

"What's so funny?"

Martha giggled even more. "You have too many names." She pointed her finger out. Martha watch as Don began to rub the back of his neck while still hiding in the dark.

"Thanks… I guess…" The two of them stood in an acquired silence. Well, for some time until a thought popped into Martha's mind that made her frown at him. "What's wrong?"

"Why are you hiding?" She tilted her head to the side with a questioning look on her face.

But Donnie didn't answer.

"You know it wasn't very nice that you didn't answer me before." Martha folded her arms over her chest.

"I'm sorry. I just didn't know what to say."

Martha lifted one of her eye rids. "What do you mean?"

Don backed up a bit while putting his hands behind his back and started moving to side to side. "Well… to tell you the truth I don't really meet that many people down here."

"Down here? You silly if want to meet someone then you should go up there." Martha pointed her up above. "There are lots and lots of people up there."

He nodded. "I know, but I can't." He glanced down at his feet.

"But… but why?"

"Because my daddy told me not to."

"Oh… well why you hiding then? You never told me yet."

"I… well… I can't."

Martha made a face. She was starting to become impatient with him as she put her hands on her hips. "Well why not?"

Don kept his gaze down. "Because, I am afraid that you're going to be afraid of me." He said in a low voice hoping that she couldn't hear him, but it failed.

"You're afraid that I'll be afraid of you? Well I was because I thought that you're going to hurt me, but not anymore. But why are you afraid?"

"Well…"

"Look."

Don glanced up from the ground looking straight into her eyes.

"I really want to see my mommy again. I don't know what makes you think I would be afraid of you. But whatever it is I won't be afraid. Because you're kind to me and you are helping me find my mommy. We're not going to find her if we keep standing here. Just please tell me what it is, then you can come out of hiding."

Don sighed in defeat. "Alright, it's my appearance."

Martha looked at him confused.

"My appearance is different then what you expect."

"So your born different? My mommy says to never judge the way how people look because it's not right. No matter what they look like they are still a normal person."

Donnie smiles after she spoke. "Thank you. It means lot to me. And yes, you're right I am born different. But not in the way you think. It's just that…"

Martha's eyes started too welled up again. "Look! I don't care what you look like! I just want to find my mommy! Now come out of there already!" Soon Martha then reached in to the shadows and grab hold of his wrist. For a second she was puzzled when she touched him, his skin felt ruff nothing like what she usually feels. By using all of her strength she had, she forced him out of the shadows into the bright light of the moon. The little girl froze staring wide eyed at the boy before her. She instantly let go of his wrist and backed away while putting her hands over her mouth.

The boy named Donatello, Donnie or Don appeared to have green skin all over his body. Three fingers on both of his hands as well as two toes on both of his feet. He was wearing a purple bandana that covering over his eyes and on top of his head. Also a brown belt was wrapped around his waist. But what really caught Martha's attention were his dark chocolate brown eyes.

Don looked away, facing down at his feet once more. He knows it's going to happen. It was just only the matter of time when it comes. He prepared himself, but nothing came. That's when he felt his wrist being grabbed again. He was then forced to turn back around facing towards Martha. Her forest green eyes stared directly into his chocolate ones. As Martha leaned closer towards him, he swallowed.

"Are you an elf?" She asked in a very low voice. Don stumbled backwards staring at her. He felt as though that he wanted to burst into laughter like his little brother always did, but he didn't. He kept silent. He expected like what his father always says to him and to his brothers about humans.

_"My sons, you must never go to the surface for they won't accept of who and what you are."_ That's when Don realized that not all humans are like that way.

"You're not going to scream?" He asked softly.

Martha raised her eyebrow. "Why are you asking me such a silly question? I told you that I won't be afraid and I'm not. Even though you look different that doesn't mean you can't be nice. My mommy told me that once when I saw this man without any legs. I was scared of him at first but when my mommy started talking to him he was actually very nice."

Don smiled. This was actually the first time she ever seen him smile. Just like his laughter, it was sweet and warming.

"Donnie? Am I on Santa's nice list?"

Don chuckled under his breath. It wasn't that long ago when he discovered that Santa Claus doesn't really exists after he had found all the gifts in a secret hidden place in the lair. It was just only their father finding gifts for them, then wrapping them up and putting them as though they were from Santa Clause. After finding his great discovery he soon learned that his eldest brother was starting to get the hint. While his two other brothers were still unaware of the truth. He chuckled again but stops to find Martha standing right next to him with her hands clasped together as her eyes grew wide with glee.

This look reminded him of his little baby brother Mikey. He only uses it whenever he gets into trouble or asking for something and saying please all the time with an annoying tone. The only way to shut him up for good, until he starts asking for something else, is to actually give him what he wants. He sighed at those memories. Now, not only his two brothers still believe, but Martha as well. He could see the joy in her eyes of wonder if she was naughty or nice. He sighed, knowing that if he would say that Santa Clause dose not exists to her, then her happiness will go away. He could not bare to see her crying again. So he decides to play along.

"I am not sure because I'm not really an elf. I'm actually a turtle... well mutant turtle that is."

Martha placed her hands over her mouth. "Oh! I'm sorry! I… didn't… I…"

"It's ok. I mean it's not like every day you see a mutant turtle like me. I may not be an elf but because of you for being so nice to me I know that you're on the nice list." He smiled at her. After hearing the good news, Martha started jumping up and down squealing with joy while clapping her hands together. Don laughed at her excitement. But right away she stops as Don did the same soon after. He began to worry that he might have done something wrong for her to stop.

"Is something wrong?"

Martha looked away from him. "It's just that, you were laughing when I was happy."

"Oh, I'm sor…"

"No, it's ok. It's just that my mommy did the same thing whenever I am happy." She yawned. "I hope that she's ok."

Donnie gently put his hand on her shoulder instantly grabbing her attention. "I'm sure she's ok. She's probably worried about you too."

Martha smiled at him before taking another yawn.

"Tired?"

She nodded while dozing off. She tried fighting it, but she was losing as her eyes began to close on her.

"Here, climb on my back…uh...shell." Donnie bent down low enough for her to climb on. Slowly she climbs onto his shell before grabbing hold around his neck. Don then put his arms under her legs for support before standing up. Martha tightens her grip making Don choke a little.

"It's ok. I'm not going to drop you." Soon her grip lightens a bit, allowing Don to breathe again. Before he took a step closer into the sewers, he started to hear a whimpering sound behind him. Don looked to find Martha had her eyes slightly opened. She was making the sound as she stared pass Donnie onto the path before them. She was scared.

Don sighed turning his head just enough so that they both could see each other. "Don't worry." He assures her.

Martha looked into his eyes seeing it very clearly now the trust in them.

"It's alright Martha. There's nothing to be afraid of. I'm here to protect you, ok?"

Martha looked at him, astonished at his words. It wasn't that long ago when someone else had said the same thing to her. She nodded to him as he smiled back. As Don began walk at a normal pace, Martha kept staring at the back of his head until the shadows consumed all the light she had left for her to see. She then closed her eyes, relaxing her head on the top of his shell.

_It's just like what you said mommy. Even though they look different or born different that does not mean they can never be nice. They are people too so they should be treated just as the same whenever you treat someone else with kindness. Just like Donnie, he looks very different, but he is very kind to me and I trust him. _Martha soon drifted into slumber with a smile on her face.

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Please review! ^_^


	4. Chapter 4: Monster

Chapter 4: Monster

The hissing cold wind breezed right by Martha. As it brushed her hair against her face, she kept her gaze down. Martha had stopped running long ago after truly knowing that the couple wasn't following her. Now walking, she held herself tightly, while at the same time she could see her own breath floating away every time she released it. The older woman was right about the weather. As every second went by, the weather grew worse. Her jacket was zipped closed and her hood was covering her head, but still, it didn't help much. The cold weather had caused her to sneeze, making her head throb like a beating against her skull, as though it were ready to pop out any moment. She clutched her head as her sight was starting to become blurry. Losing her footing, she stumbled; then caught herself with the wall next to her. Her breathing was soon interrupted with loud, harsh coughs, making her throat dry and sticky. Martha was about to fall on her knees when something grabbed hold of her arm and pulled her up to her feet.

"Hey, are you alright?"

Martha's eyes shot back into focus after hearing the voice. Drawing her attention towards the source; a girl about her same age with long brown and slight, golden hair and green, blue tinted eyes was standing next to her. The girl was wearing a blue winter coat, a bright yellow hat, and dark blue jeans.

Martha stayed silent as the wind blew right in between them. She opened her mouth, but nothing came out. She knew what she wanted to say, but she couldn't get the words out of her head, just like before.

"What's your name?" The girl shook her arm lightly, but Martha stayed silent. Her heart began pounding inside of her. Looking at the girl; then back at her arm, she did not know what to do. The girl was about to say something else, but couldn't when Martha tore her arm from beneath the girl's hand and ran away.

"Wait!" The girl shouted, but Martha ignored her call as a few tears escaped her eyes.

TMNT ^_^

Young Martha slept on the cement ground peacefully until she felt something wet hitting her forehead. She opened her eyes slowly; then rubbed the sleep out of them gently before another drop of liquid landed on top of her forehead. After adjusting her eyes to her surroundings, she realized that she was not in her comfy, warm bed, but in the sewers. She panicked a bit before remembering how she got there in the first place. While sitting up, she looked around seeing it was just a plain old tunnel. That's when it dawned on her that she was alone.

"Donnie?" Looking around again she saw Don was nowhere in sight. "Donnie! DONNIE! DONN-" Suddenly something from behind clasped her mouth shut. Panicking, she struggled, moving her body in different directions, trying free herself from whoever had a hold on her. But the grip was too strong for her, so she bit whatever was on top of her mouth. A sudden yelp came from behind making what Martha bit removed instantly from her. Martha turned around right away and swung her fist at the figure, but her fist was caught before she could do any harm.

"Martha! Wait! It's me!" She stops and looked at the figure in a funny way.

"Donnie?"

Don sighed letting go of her hand. "Yes Martha, it's me."

Recognizing his voice Martha let her guard down, sighing in relief; but she suddenly punched him in the arm.

"Oww." He began rubbing it. "Why did you punch me?"

She glared at him with her hands on her hips. "Don't you ever scare me like that ever again!" She pointed her finger out at him. "Also…" Again Donnie clasped her mouth shut before looking around.

Martha became angry while yanking his hands off of her. "Stop doing that!"

"Shh…" He shushed her before looked away for a second; then turning back. "I'm sorry that I scared you, but I was trying to stop you from shouting so much. We have to stay quiet." He whispered, low enough so that only the two of them could hear.

"But… why?" Martha looked at him confused, but he didn't answer. Gently grabbing her hand, he led her away from whatever he was looking at earlier, away from the dim light that was shining around the corner. Martha quickly looked and caught a slight glimpse of a door way leading into someplace else. Martha kept staring at it as the light slowly faded away into nothingness. Neither of them spoke another word as they walked further down into the sewers, until after some time when something small and soft ran past Martha's foot. She looked back, but couldn't see anything. But not long after, two little glowing red eyes appeared, staring right back at her in the dark. Seeing this, Martha screamed while running in front of Donnie and turning him around using him as a body guard.

"It's a MONSTER!" She shouted.

Don winced from the shout since he was right there. He looked and saw the glowing red eyes too. Knowing exactly what it was, he sighed. "That's not a monster. It's only a harmless little rat." Don walked over and carefully picked up the little guy while gently petting its head.

"A… rat?

Don turned back around, holding the rat up for her to see. Martha could barely make out the outlines of the little creature in his hands.

"Yep, see. He won't hurt you."

Slowly she reached out and petted the little guy.

"I guess not." She smiled. The rat soon ran up on Donnie's arm and sat on his shoulder. Martha giggled. "I think he likes you."

Don reached up and gently scratched on the little guy's neck. He chuckled. "I guess he does." Swiftly, the little rat jumped down from Don's shoulder and scampered off. Both of the children continue watched it as it ran away. Martha smiled as she turned her attention towards Don, but the sad look on his face made her smile fade away.

"Donnie? Are you ok?"

He turned to her and smiled. "Yeah, everything's fine."

She frowned noticing the hint of sadness in his voice. Just Don began to walk away; Martha grabbed his wrist and turned him back around towards her.

"Donnie? What's wrong?"

He didn't answer. Seeing the look in his eyes made Martha worry. _Why is he sad? And not answering me? Was it something that I said? _Then Martha realized instantly what it was. "Is it because I called that rat a monster?"

Don winced after hearing that word. He soon turned away from her and took a few steps away before stopping; he kept his gaze down.

"I never really like that word." He took a deep breath before turning back towards her. "Do you ever wonder why I am down here and not up there?"

Martha nodded.

"And remember what you said to me, that it's not right to treat others differently because they look different?"

She nodded again.

"Well, those people up there, they treat me differently; they would treat me as a monster. That's why my daddy told me that I can't go up there. If I go up there, then they will take me away to a very bad place and I would never see my family again."

Martha stared at him in shock and disbelieve.

"So…" She began to say in a shaky voice. "You've lived down here all your life?"

He nodded.

"But I don't treat you as a monster! Monsters are mean and scary looking! You're not mean or scary! You're not a monster at all! You're very nice to me, and you look nothing like a monster."

Don smiled. "Thanks." He said in a shy voice.

Martha smiled back.

"Well, we better get going. We're not that far from the exit."

Martha's smile grew. "Really?"

He chuckled at her excitement while gently grabbing her hand.

"Yep! But I have to grab something first before we leave the sewers." He explained.

"What is it?"

Don smiled. "Well, I can't go to the surface without a disguise."

Martha looked at him confused. "But didn't you just say that your daddy told you that you can't go to the surface? And won't they take you away to some place that is very bad?"

"Not unless I'm wearing a disguise. People would think that I'm just another human boy because of my disguise; it will hide what I'm really am." He smiled but Martha wasn't convinced.

"But your daddy told you that you can't. You should listen to your daddy like I do with my mommy." But Martha thought twice of what she said and sadly frowned. "My mommy told me that I should stay next to her so that I wouldn't get lost, but I did get lost. Mommy is not going to be very happy with me." She felt ashamed of herself, as she peered down at her feet.

Don sighed, gently placing his hand on her shoulder. She looked up at him with teary eyes.

"It's not your fault." He assured her. "New York City is a very big city. Once we find your mommy, I'm positive that she's going to be very happy to see you."

"Really?"

He smiled again. "Of course."

She wiped her tears away, feeling a bit better then before, but there was still something she didn't feel quite right about just yet.

"But what about your daddy? He won't be very happy with you for going up there."

Don sighed.

"I know." He whispered while smirking at her. "But to tell you the truth, I have already been to the surface once."

Her eyes widen.

"Yeah, but I got in big trouble. I never went to the surface ever again; but sense this is an emergency, I guess it's alright. And besides, I made a promise and it's wrong for not keeping them. So I'm not leaving your side no matter what until we find her." He smiled.

Martha copied him back, but deep down inside she felt very angry. The thought of people treating him like the way he described was wrong. The whole time she had been with him, he had never done anything to harm her in any way. Why do people have to be so cruel, to judge someone by the way they look, before getting to know them? Martha felt frustrated about that, knowing very well that Don was definitely not what they thought he was. _Why do people have to be so mean? I don't understand how people could call him a monster! If I ever catch someone calling him that, then they don't want to see me on my unhappy side,_ She promised herself.

After walking another few minutes, Don stopped in his tracks and started pulling a few loose bricks from the brick wall. "This is our secret hiding spot where my brothers and I hide our stuff from our daddy." He explained. "My baby brother Mikey found this while he was trying to teach himself how to skateboard in the sewers." Don chuckled from the memory, but he frowned soon afterwards. "I don't like keeping secrets from my daddy, but my brothers threaten me that if I told on them… so this secret have never been found out yet." As Don continued talking, Martha thought that she heard something. She had the feeling as though they were being watched. Checking to make sure she looked all around them and found that nothing was out of the ordinary. She felt relieved, but the feeling inside of her was still there.

"Ah! Here it is!"

Martha jumped a little from the sudden outburst from Don. She watched him as he put on his disguise.

"Well? What do you think?" He asked.

She looked at him funny. He wore a tan long sleeved shirt underneath a black jacket, long blue jeans that seem a bit too big for him, and a red cap on his head that made it hard for her to see his eyes.

She giggled at him. "You look silly in that."

He grinned at her. "I'll take that as a complement." She smiled as Don gently grabbed her hand and continued where they left off on their journey. But the feeling never left, she looked back one last time to where she first sensed that feeling. Everything seemed normal like before. Nothing did appear to be suspicious. Martha sighed as she turned away, disappearing with Don deeper into the sewers.

Hiding in the shadows, a pair of eyes continued to stare at their direction.

* * *

Please review! ^_^


	5. Chapter 5: Don't Give Up

Chapter 5: Don't Give Up

The sky grew dark as the cold winter wind began to increase. It was fiercely carried through the air and into anything that came in its way. Shivering, Martha continued walking through the harsh wind as they whipped against her. She fought against it, but her body was slowly losing, she could no longer feel her toes and her fingers. Every few minutes she would release her breath into her gloved hands, trying as hard as she could to keep them warm; but it didn't help much. It even led Martha into another coughing fit into her sleeve. Without knowing, she stumbled, losing her footing again, and fell, only this time no one was there to catch her.

After the ground welcomed her gently, she rose to her knees and crawled into a nearby alley and rested herself against the brick wall. Her entire body ached; her throat was dry; her fingers and her toes felt frozen; her head was throbbing; her eyes would sometimes lose focus; it was hard for her to walk; and worse she was freezing. What could be even worse than this? She sighed, looking up at the dark, clouded gray sky; she then took a deep breath before looking back down again. She held her entire body closer to herself as she continued to shiver.

_I can't go on, _She thought, _so cold… it hurts. I should have known that my body can't take this kind of weather in the condition that it is in now. It's too much for it to handle. I'm so stupid! I knew it was a bad idea! I knew it was too far away and… I did it anyway! _She felt so angered with herself that she did not noticed that her eyes were once again covered in tears. She tried to hold it in, but failed as she sobbed into her hands. _I can't go on._

_"You can do it Donnie!" Donnie-onnie-onnie-nie-nie-e-e-e... "You're almost there!" There-here-here-ere-ere-re-re-e-e-e… _Instantly looking up from her soaked gloved hands, she looked around, wondering where that voice was coming from. _"DONNIE!"_ _Donnie-onnie-onnie-nie-nie-e-e-e... _Without knowing how, Martha was up on her feet again, running out of the alley towards where the sudden shout was disappearing. _"Are you all right?" Right-ight-ight-ght-ght-t-t-t…_ The voice was coming from the next alley down. Martha stopped dead in her tacks at the entrance of it. _"Donnie?"_ _Donnie-onnie-onnie-nie-nie-e-e-e... _Her legs then gave way at that very moment. She fell down to her knees as a smile crept on her face. The alley was all too familiar as she sat alone on her knees, staring at the manhole a few feet away. She slowly made her way towards another brick wall and rested her body against it. She waited, knowing that very soon she wouldn't be alone anymore.

TMNT ^_^

"Yeah, I'm fine." Don winced from the pain.

"Are you sure? You fell down pretty hard. Did you break anything?" Martha crouched down next to him.

"No, I'm fine." Don looked up from where he fell. He almost had it, but his strength wasn't enough to remove it. He then sighed while looking back down again. "If only my brothers were here then we could move the lid out of the way."

Martha joined him on the ground. "You're lucky. I don't have any brothers or sisters." Martha curled her arms around her legs.

"So you're an only child?"

She nodded. "I bet it's fun to have someone to play with. It's not fun being lonely. My mommy works all day; and when she comes home, it's already my bed time. I wish I had a brother."

Don began to rub the back of his head.

"Donnie? What are your brothers like?"

He looked at her before thinking over her question for a moment. "Oh, well, let's see. Umm… I have three brothers. Two of them are older than me while the other is my baby brother. My oldest brother is Leonardo, but we call him by Leo. He is always in charge of us when are daddy is gone but sometimes he becomes Mr. Bossie. But he takes good care of us like our daddy. Like always making sure that we are ok and protecting us if we are in danger. Like one time, I fell into the sewer water and I couldn't really swim well. But if Leo wasn't there to save me; then I would have drown."

Martha gasped. "Wow! Your brother is like a hero!"

"Yeah, I guess I keep forgetting that I am thankful that I have Leo as my brother." He smiled to her. "Ok, next is my second oldest brother. His name is Raphael, but we call him Raph for short, or Raphie but he hates that name."

Martha giggled.

"Raph and Leo are almost like the same, but there are things that the two of them have that are the complete opposite from each other. He's pretty much like Mr. Grumpy, like one of the dwarfs on the Snow White movie. He gets mad most of the time, but not always. He doesn't want to say it, but I can tell that he has a soft side in him."

Martha giggled. "I guess he's the tough guy huh?"

"Yeah, he's a lot stronger than me; but I don't care. Though I hate it when he and Leo get into fights sometimes. One time this one fight went a little too far, so I tried to stop it before it got any worse. But when I got in the way, Raph punched me in the face."

Martha's eyes widened.

"I know that he didn't mean to. It was an accident. I told him that I was fine and there was nothing for him to worry about, but he felt so mad at himself for doing it that he ran away."

"What happened? Did you guys find him?"

Don nodded. "I went after him and found him near the gate. It's the only place we could go to see the surface without being seen. When he saw me, he told me to go away but I didn't. I stayed right next to him, but I didn't say anything until he starting saying that he was sorry to me for the hundredth time. I told him that I was ok and I forgave him for pouching me. Everything was fine after that."

Martha sighed in relief. "I'm glad. He's sounds very nice when you get to know him."

Don smiled. "And then there's my baby brother. His name is Michelangelo but we call him Mike or Mikey for short. Mikey is pretty much the goofball or the prankster of the group. He is always getting into trouble because he keeps playing pranks or tricks on us that our daddy does not like at all. Sometimes he gets really excited about a lot of things that makes him happy. There are times when I don't know where he gets the energy to do most of the things he does all day."

Martha laughed at this as Don followed the suit. "Yeah, he's pretty much happy all the time and he always has a smile on his face even when all of us were sick and felt really bad once. He does get annoying at times, but that's what baby brothers do; they annoy us big brothers."

Martha continued to laugh. "He does sound like a goofball!"

Don sighed while taking his gaze off of her, and began to stare at the manhole above them. Slowly her laughter died down making the silence return. "I still I wish I had brothers like yours then I wouldn't be so lonely."

"Don't you have any friends?"

She shook her head. "No, all the others kids in my class aren't very nice to me and I don't know why they are! I didn't do anything to them and they treat me… like I'm a nobody." Her eyes began to well up again. "One time in class, we were supposed to bring something in for show and tell day. I brought in a picture of my family. I told them what my Mommy and my Daddy do at their jobs. But this one boy in my class was so mean to me that when the teacher left the room, he said that my show and tell was stupid."

Don frowned at this.

"Then… he took my picture and… ripped it." She sighed before continuing. "But I'm ok now. When the teacher came back she saw me crying. She asked me what happened and I told on him. After I did he was sent to the principal's office. I felt better that he left, but all of his friends were mad at me. They kept calling me a tattle-tale and others things."

Don's frown grew. Even though she was a human, her life story didn't sound at all like what his brothers and he thought it would be like on the surface.

Every day, Don had always thought what it would be like to live on the surface. To be a human like everyone else. He believed that humans didn't have problems like they did there in the sewers, but it appeared that he was wrong. After what Martha had revealed to him, it seemed that humans went through things that he and his family would never go through. Also, things those were similar to the problems that he and his family lived with. Now he believed that no matter what life people live in, there are always problems to deal with. Don had never experience her problems before and probably never would, but he nodded to her in understanding.

"Donnie?" She said, drawing his attention towards her and away from his thoughts. "What was in that room where that glowing light was coming from?"

He hesitated as he began to play with his thumbs. "Umm… I'm can't tell you cause my daddy won't be happy."

She nodded as the thought of it drifted away. Don then stared at her watching as she shifted her body in a ball. Then he frowned. He couldn't quite understand at all how she did not have any friends. The way she accepted him as he was and the way she treated him made him confused. How could she not have any friends and yet be nice to talk to and to be with? The way how he saw it, there was nothing wrong with how she talked, acted, and the way that she appeared to be. To him, she looked like a person who would have many friends, but her life story told the opposite. It seemed that those kids that she spoke of didn't give her a chance to make friends. All because she did what was right. His eyes then grew wide after realizing something.

He sighed, drawing his attention towards her. He completely understood now. She may have been human, and the way she lived her life is completely different than his, but they both shared something that they both understood and had to live through. Something that he never thought a human would have to go through. Being judged by others. His appearance and her doing what's right, both of those things made them get judged. It hurts and he knew it. To him, it was nothing new for people like humans to not accept the way he appeared to be. But not getting accepted by your own kind all because of doing what's right was something that he would never understand. It's so frustrating that you've done nothing wrong, and yet others treat you as if you had. Accusing you on something that never happened. Don sighed while staring down at his hands. Being judged makes you feel that you are a nobody or a monster. Feeling that you are all alone and nobody cares about you.

But there are people who do care, people who you love the most, your family. Her mother and his father and brothers were there for the two of them, to take care of them and to love them no matter what life threw at them. He frowned again. But wasn't that what he was doing to her right then? Taking care of her until they found her mother? But what did that make them? They were not related, so did that mean that they were friends? Don was puzzled by this. Besides his brothers, he never really had friends, at all. Like him, Martha never had one as well. After all that has happened up until now, did that considered them as friends? A tiny smile appeared on his face. He soon turned his attention towards her, but frowned. Martha was shivering from the cold air. Not liking the scene before him, Don scooted closer towards her and wrapped his arms around her. Martha jumped a little, but then relaxed, knowing that it was just Don hugging her. Wait… hugging her? She looked at him confused. Don saw this and let go of her in a hurry while moving away, blushing.

"Uh… sorry. It's just… it's just that you looked cold and all and I wanted… I wanted… Uh…um… can… can I start over?"

She smiled at him and giggled. "That's ok. I know that you were trying to help. It is freezing down here. I don't really like the cold weather."

He nodded in understanding since he was cold blooded. Martha sighed, looking away. Don could see it; she was still a bit upset about the story she told. Seeing her upset was something that Don didn't want. He had to change it somehow, and fast before it could get worse.

"You're not alone Martha." He began to say.

Again she looked at him confused.

"I don't have any friends either."

Her eyes widen. "But… but what about your brothers?"

He shook his head. "That's different. Yes, I have my brothers; but still, it's not the same."

She nodded, understanding that his appearance would get in his way from making any friends. The thought of that made her feel… guilty. The reason was that she had the opportunity in making friends, and he did not. Here she was upset about not having any friends, and yet she still had a chance in making some in the future; while Don didn't have a chance at all. She felt horrible and selfish, complaining about her life to a boy who appeared and lived the complete opposite of her. Thinking about it even more made her feel worse than a few seconds ago. If only there was something that she could do to make him happy.

"So, I've been thinking."

Again she looked back at him.

"After what we have gone through already, doesn't that… you know… make us friends?"

Again her eyes widened. Don and herself as friends? Why hadn't she thought of that? She guessed considering that she had never had a friend before, her mind would never come to think of it. Her sadness disappeared automatically, and then was replaced by sheer happiness. Who would of have thought that finally having a friend would bring so much happiness to her? After what had Don revealed to her, she had never felt this way before her father had died three years ago.

She instantly wrapped her arms around him. Don was surprised at this, but it made him feel happy that he could make her happy. Although to him it felt kind of weird, her hugging him, he started blushing. Martha continued to hug him when warm tears dripped down onto his plastron. But these tears were different than any other; these tears represented happiness and not sadness. Soon her strength in her hug grew, making it hard for Donnie to breathe.

"Martha – you – can – let – go – now. – I – can't – breathe…"

Right away she let go of him. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! Are you ok? I didn't break anything did I?"

Don took a few deep breaths before he could answer. "I'm ok."

Martha wasn't convinced. She leaned closer and looked at him carefully to make sure. "Are you sure?" She asked.

"Yes."

"Are you really sure?"

"Yes…"

"I mean are you really really really sure?"

Don shook his head as he chuckled under his breath. "Yes Martha, I'm ok."

Finally she leaned back and relaxed. Shivering again, she gazed up at the covered manhole and sighed.

"We're not going to get out of here, are we?" She asked in a low whisper.

Don stared blankly at her. How were they going to get out of there? Don knew that this was the only manhole he could think of - that is, the closes to Time Square where she lost her mother in the first place. So the question remained, how were they going to get out of there? Don sighed, feeling slightly sad at the tone of her voice. It sounded as though she were giving up. He soon growled at the thought. There was no way he was giving up then. He made a promise. A promise that he would keep and giving up was not an option. Instantly, he stood up and grabbed Martha's hand and began pulling her up with him on the ladder.

"Donnie? What are you doing?"

"I made a promise to you, Martha. We're going to find your mommy. But I need your help. We may not have the strength like my brothers and I have all together, but at least we could try." After the two of them reached the lid, both of them placed their hands upon it. "Ok, when I count to three start pushing the lid as hard as you can."

She nodded.

"Ok, here we go. One… two… three!" Both of them began to push with all their might, but still the lid wouldn't budge.

"It's too heavy!" Martha complained.

"Keep going! We're almost there!" They kept trying, but the lid was still too heavy for them.

"I don't think it's working!"

"Don't give up!" They kept going, but the lid didn't move. Don was starting to push to his limits. His arms were becoming tired and so were Martha's. Just as the two of them couldn't go any further, suddenly, the lid felt lighter than it was at first. With that, the two young ones pushed the lid out of its place. Don was astonished that they had done it. After the lid was moved Martha climbed out of the manhole first, then Don.

"Look Donnie! We did it! We did it!" Martha shouted with excitement. She then wrapped her arms around him again, hugging him tightly. Don was still in shock that they actually had it without his brothers' help. He then felt proud of himself. When Martha let go of him, she gazed up at the sky. In her eyes, the sky was clear. She then squinted them to find that the sky really was clear. Nothing, not one star or even the moon was there. This confused her greatly. Besides the bright lights glowing from everywhere throughout the city, the sky was nothing but pitch black. Then the color black soon gave her the idea of why.

"Donnie? Is that the reason why they call this day Black Friday?" She pointed up at the sky.

Don's gaze followed where she was pointing to see the sky was clear as well. "I'm not sure. I guess so." Don rubbed the back of his head before looking back down at the lid. He still couldn't figure it out, how the two of them could actually move the lid out of its way.

"O my gosh! Look Donnie! It's… it's… snowing!"

TMNT ^_^

The teenage girl chuckled under her breath. The memory of the look on Don's face was something that she would always remember. She watched her young self as she ran all around the alley, trying her best to catch the tiny flakes on her tongue, while Don stood there, puzzled by what was happening before him. Watching the memory taking place before her, Martha could almost feel that the snowflakes were real. She could almost feel the snowflakes were falling down upon her like it was doing in her current memory. She sighed, once again peering down at her necklace resting upon her hand.

"Don's right. I can't give up." She whispered while continuing to watch as her young self try to talk Don into joining her. "I made a promise to him long ago." Slowly, she struggled while standing up. "I may not have enough strength all on my own." She said while witnessing her young self falling down from slipping on tiny pebbles. "But with your help, at least I can still try." Finally, Martha stood on her feet as she watched Don helping her young self, pulling her up to her feet as well. Soon, she then turned away from the scene of her memory and began to exit the alley, but she then stopped for a moment while turning her head to look back. She smiled as young Donatello joined in with her young self by catching snowflakes with his tongue. "Thank you." After those two words were finally released from her mouth again, she turned away from her memory and continued down the path with a smile still upon her face.

TMNT ^_^

One by one, each snowflake floated down from the sky as it calmly waited for itself to make contact on the ground. Martha and Don both waited as well with their tongues sticking out for the snowflakes to land on top of them. This was a first for Donatello. He had seen snow before when he and his brothers went out with their father for fun in Central Park, one time long ago. But he had never seen the snow actually falling down from the sky before. Seeing it for the first time was something special to him, a special moment in his life that he would remember forever.

"Look Donnie! I got one! I got one!" Martha shouted.

Don smiled at her for a second before returning his attention back to the falling snowflakes. He waited and watched carefully as a huge snowflake came down above him. He continued to wait before the right moment came, just as the snowflake tried to make its escape away from Don's tongue, he caught with great success on his first try.

"I got one!" He shouted, feeling quite proud of himself. He then celebrated his victory for tiny bit before continuing to catch some more snowflakes. Martha, on the other hand, was enjoying herself as much as Don was until she saw something huge in the corner of her eye. For a split second, she saw something rather large moved in the back of the alley.

"Umm… Donnie?"

Don stopped from want he was doing after hearing the concern in her voice. "What's wrong?" He asked while turning his attention towards where she was staring.

"I think I saw something move. Something really big." She explained.

"Where?" He asked turning back at her.

"Over there." She pointed ahead.

Don looked around before he started tip-toeing over to where she was pointing.

"Be careful." She whispered behind him.

He nodded slightly. In the back of the alley, a dumpster and a few garbage cans stood in the shadows. Don took note that those were perfect places for someone to hide. Slowly and carefully Don looked behind everything, but nothing was yet to be seen. "Do you see anything?" He faced towards her while shaking his head.

"Nope. There's nothing there."

"But I saw something. I know I did."

Don shrugged his shoulders. "Maybe it was just an alley cat."

"Maybe…" She kept staring at the far back of the alley.

"Don't worry I'm here."

She gave him a smile.

"Now let's go find your mommy before we freeze to death," said Donnie again grabbing her hand.

"Ok, the last place where I saw my mommy was where I met those meany boys. But she could be anywhere by now."

Don pointed up one of his fingers. "True, but where do you think your mommy would go to find you."

"Umm… the police?"

"Right, the police station. And that's where we're going." Don peeked his head out of the alley looking around to see the cost was clear. He then made a motion for Martha to follow. "Now where could the police station be?" Don looked both directions wondering where they should head first.

"My mommy asks people for directions sometimes." Martha suggested.

Don turned around and smiled at her. "Good idea."

She smiled back, but it instantly disappeared into a frown when a large shadow appeared, hovering over them. Don noticed the sudden change and turned back around to face a group of boys.

"Well... well… well… look what we have here," said the boy with the red shades on top of his head, who was standing in front of the group.

Don stood his ground in front of Martha, guarding her from the gang before them.

"I never would have thought I would find ya here again. But since yer here now, ya have to pay double for trespassin' in our territory!"

Martha hid further behind Don.

"And it's about time for me to give ya some payback after what ya did to me the last time we met, GIRLY!"

* * *

Please review! ^_^


	6. Chapter 6: Forever we are Friends

Chapter 6: Forever We Are Friends

The snow was becoming thicker in the air as it fell down calmly in between the two groups, they continued staring at each other in complete silence. The gang was still wearing their hockey gear as they held their hockey sticks out, ready for anything. Jack, the leader of the gang, glared at the two nine-year-olds with hatred and revenge in his eyes. The two young ones began to back away as the gang drew closer towards them.

"That's them! Those are the boys who want my necklace." Martha whispered to Don. He nodded as he continued to watch carefully every movement the gang made. This was not good, not good at all. He hadn't expected to actually meet the boys, who caused Martha so much trouble. Seeing them now, he wished he had brought his bokken.

"Martha," he whispered back, "run."

"What!"

"Run. I cannot let them harm you."

"No. I'm not leaving you. I don't want you to get hurt."

"But you must. It's your necklace that they want. I'll take care of them. Don't worry about me, I'll be alright. Please Martha."

"Aww! Well isn't that just cute. Blah! It makes me sick! Get him guys!" Jack commanded as two boys from the gang appeared in front of Don. Both of the boys at once approached Don with full speed while screaming out a battle cry, then swinging their hockey sticks at him. Don pushed Martha out of the way just in time; then jumped up and landed on both of the weapons. Martha landed on her back not too far away from the fight. Ignoring the pain, she sat up and watched as Donnie grabbed both of the boy's heads and smashed them together. The two hockey players dropped their equipment as they backed away while rubbing their aching heads. They soon exchanged a glance before running away, crying like babies.

"COWARDS!" Jack shouted back at them. Don then picked up one of the hockey sticks and turned his attention away from the gang, to Martha.

"Martha! Run!" He shouted. Martha hesitated at first; then got up to her feet and ran the other way from the scene.

"Ya morons! She's gettin' away! After her!"

Doing as they were told, five hockey players ran after her. Don did all he could to stop them. He then used his hockey stick to block their way, but there were too many of them at once. As he stopped one of the players, another player aided his companion by knocking Donnie out of the way. Don was hit directly on his plastron, hard enough that he flew and landed against the apartment wall. He groaned as he clutched his hand on his plastron, trying to stop the pain. He then stood to witness the five boys running away from his sight chasing after Martha.

"No… Martha…" Don whispered as the pain grew worse while he spoke. He then shot back his attention at the rest of the gang, readying himself into his defensive position, staring directly into the leaders' eyes that where hidden behind the red shades. He kept his stance ready the way his father taught him, keeping the hockey stick in a comfortable position to protect him from anything that the gang would throw at him. But the pain was still there, screaming inside of him. He touched his plastron again, only to make the pain worse; he could tell that a bruise was forming on it. The pain was so unbearable that his eyes were about break into tears, but he fought it. He knew well that crying was a sign of weakness. A sign that should never be seen in the eyes of an enemy, a sign that Don didn't want. But to his dismay, none other than Jack himself noticed the look on his face.

"Aww. Are ya gonna cry?" Jack mocked him, speaking if he were talking to a two-year-old. He then pretended that he were crying, making the motions of wiping away tears that were never really there. Jack and the rest of the gang began to laugh at Donnie. Don looked back up again and gritted his teeth. He felt his heart pounding inside of him, energy was rushing through his veins, he had never felt this way until now. Sure his brothers made fun of him sometimes and called him names here and there for being so smart. Yet he didn't mind, but this, however, he would not accept. After what they did to Martha and to him, he would make sure that they wouldn't do it again. While the gang continued to laugh at him, Don made his move. He approached Jack holding the hockey stick steady in his hands; for what Don was about to do, Jack wouldn't be laughing for long. He then used the energy that was built up inside of him by striking the leader in the face. He then smirked, feeling a lot better to see the leader stumble backwards from the impact that was brought upon him. Jack's red shades fell from his face after he was hit, the shades then made contact of the cement ground, breaking into pieces.

"NO! Those were my dad's!" Jack shouted in rage, revealing the black eye that Don gave him. He then growled at him. "Yer goin' to pay, ya little brat!" Jack then charged at Donnie with his hockey stick over his head. Once he was two feet away from Don, he brought it down with a loud _clang! _The two weapons made contact with each other after Don defended himself with his.

From a distance Martha could hear Jack shouting behind her, but she couldn't quite understand what he was saying. She worried about Don. It was all because of her for bringing him into this mess. She wanted to stay with him, but he worried for her safety and told her to run. But even though she ran away, she was still in danger, as five members of the gang persisted after her.

"You can't run forever girly!" One of the members shouted behind her. True to his words, Martha slipped and fell, making the landing brutal upon her skin. She kept herself from screaming as she quickly stood and tried to continue to run. But the pain was worse than she thought. Not only her skin stung but also her waist started cramping up again. _No… not yet. Not now… _She thought. She felt the déjà vu, but this time the white fluffy kitten named Angel wasn't with her. But even so, she couldn't continue on with the pain inside of her slowing her down. Trying to catch her breath, she leaned her weight upon the wall next to her.

"We gotchu now!" Other gang member shouted. Frightened beyond belief, she took off running again. But she couldn't get that far as she fell again on the cement ground. Ignoring the pain, she rose to her knees and crawled into a nearby alley and hid herself behind a few garbage cans. Her lungs demanded air as she breathed some in deeply while trying her best to calm it down again, long enough so that the gang wouldn't know where she was hiding. But to her dismay, fate was against her.

"Ha! You're making this too easy! Search the area!"

She swallowed in fear, knowing that there was no way out for her this time. The gang began rummaging around the area, causing a loud ruckus while they searched for her. Martha closed her eyes, as she clasps her hands together.

_I'm so sorry Donnie for bringing you into this._ _Where ever you are please be alright._ Suddenly her hiding place was found when the garbage cans that once stood in front of her were thrown across the alley. Martha screamed in terror.

"Found you! You little brat!"

Martha continued to scream as the gang closed in on her.

"Shut up!" Yelled the boy directly in front of her. The gang member brought back his foot getting ready to silence her.

Martha covered her face, knowing the impact was coming. She waited and waited and waited, but nothing came. No pain. She felt nothing. Slowly she peeked through her fingers to find-to her surprise-Angel was sitting there right before her.

"Angel?" The little kitten meowed as it licked its paw.

She smiled, feeling relieved to see her little friend again. She then petted it on top of its head, letting it to know that she was happy to see her. But the sounds of groaning caught her attention. She found all the gang members were no longer standing before her, but now lying on the ground groaning in pain. "What happened?" Martha pulled herself to her feet to find that whoever did this was no were in sight. "Angel? Did you see who did this?" The kitten's only answer was by grooming its self. Martha then looked back around again to then find the boy, who was going to hit her, unconscious before her. "How would you like to get kicked!" She shouted, quickly kicking him in the leg before making a face at him with her tongue sticking out. After she was satisfied, Don's face then appeared in her mind. "Oh! No! Donnie! I hope he's ok!" Martha rushed out of the alley only to find herself crashing into someone else. She fell onto her backside. After recovering quickly she realized that it was Don who she ran into. He too fell on his backside, but he struggled trying to pull himself up.

"Donnie! Are you ok?" Martha rushed to his side.

"I'm ok." He lied, ignoring the bruise.

"Are you sure?"

He sighed. "Don't worry, I'm fine, and yes, I'm sure." He lied again, knowing he'd regret it later. Don didn't want to lie to her, but he also didn't want her to worry.

"I'm sorry."

Don looked at her confused. "For what?"

"It's all my fault. If I didn't lose my mommy, none of this would ever happen." Martha looked away, feeling like she was going to cry.

"Now don't say that," said Don, putting his hand on her shoulder.

"But it's true." She looked back at him. "You wouldn't got hurt by those big fat meanies."

"But Martha I'm…"

"I saw one of those meanies hitting you with the stick." Martha interrupted looking down.

"Yeah, but I'm alive right."

"Yeah, but still…"

"Martha if none of this ever happened then we would never have met. And I'm glad that I got to meet you."

Martha looked at him surprised. "Really?"

He smiled. "Of course. If we have never had met, then we wouldn't have become friends."

Martha's eyes widen. "I… I never thought of that."

Don nodded. "I lived in the sewers all my life. The only friends I had were my brothers. My daddy always told us that humans won't accept us for whom and what we are. Because of my own appearance, I would never have the chance to make any friends." He paused for a moment. "But now that's changed because you gave me the chance that I thought I would never have. And I'm very glad that I got to meet a person like you to give me this chance."

"I… don't know what to say. No one has ever said anything like that to me before."

"You don't need to say anything." Slowly, ignoring the pain, Don gently wrapped his arms around her, pulling her into a hug. She smiled and did the same. After some time, they broke apart and then gently they helped each other up to their feet. Soon the two of them helped each other out as they brushed the snow off of them. Suddenly, Martha then realized that Angel was nowhere in sight. After running out of the alley and running into Don she hadn't seen Angel.

"Now let's go find your mommy," said Don as he started to walk down the path, pulling Martha behind him. She looked back at the alley, but Angel was still nowhere to be seen. She sighed, knowing that she wouldn't ever see Angel ever again. But when she turned back to look where she was going, she started giggling.

"Um… Donnie? Do you even know where you're going?"

Don stopped in his tracks when he realized that she was right. "I actually really don't." He turned to her, feeling a little embarrassed. Martha giggled at him.

"Let me help." She said as she walked up to a young woman, who was waiting at the bus stop nearby. The woman was dressed in a long red coat and a red hat. She had long golden curly hair covering her shoulders and most of the top of her back.

"Umm… Hello."

The woman looked around before she peered down at Martha. "Why hello there. Aren't you a cute little one." She said with a smile.

"Umm… Can you please tell me where the Police station is?"

"Of course; it's three blocks down that way." The woman pointed behind Martha. Martha turned to see then looked back at the woman and smiled. "Thank you."

"You're welcome, but isn't a little bit too dark out for you to be walking by yourself?"

"Don't worry; I have a friend." Martha pointed at Donnie. He shyly waved at her.

"Well alright then but be careful."

Martha smiled. "We will." She said while turning her back towards the woman and walked over where Don stood; then grabbed his hand. "She said it's this way." Martha pointed the way out.

"Well what are we waiting for?" asked Don as they began to run down the path together. Snowflakes continued to fall above them while trying its best to make sure everything was covered by snow. It even tried to cover the two children's faces as they ran through the fog of snowflakes. The sky was still pitch black on this dark night, making the apartment complex area look unwelcoming. But that did not stop the two young ones as the street lamps lit their way towards the Police Station. Once they arrived at the building, Martha realized that she must have passed it without knowing that it was there. She felt slightly stupid, but the thought if it vanished when she saw through one of the windows someone that she had thought that she would never see again.

Her mother.

"MOMMY!" Martha shouted, running up the steps. But then she instantly stopped at the door. Don followed until he caught up to her.

"What's wrong?" He asked.

"I just thought of something."

"What?"

She turned around and looked at him. "Will I ever see you again?" They both fell into complete silence.

"I… I don't know. Maybe. Do you leave anywhere near?"

She shook her head. "No, my mommy and I live in a very small town very far away from here. I do really want to see you again."

"Yeah, me too. Maybe the next time you come to visit New York City we should see each other." He smiled.

"That's a great idea!"

"But the problem is how would I know that you're here?"

"Oh… right. Maybe I'll just come here on the same day like today only umm…"

"Yeah! Like in the future and we should meet somewhere like where we first met. Yeah! And we should meet at around six O'clock! What do you think?"

"That's a great idea! But what if my mommy is too busy and I can't come next year? What if…"

Don put his hands on her shoulders. "Martha, just promise me that someday, maybe not next year or the year after that, you will come and visit alright?"

She nodded in agreement.

"And I promise you that I will visit the spot where we first met every year on this day until the year you come, ok?"

She nodded once more.

"No matter how many years it will take we are still friends." She smiled at him, but then she remembered something and looked down.

"Donnie?"

"Yeah?"

"This necklace means a lot to me. My daddy gave it to me on my sixth birthday before… he died." She paused after whispering the last few words. "He told me to give one of the halves of my necklace to my most bestest friend. And he said to choose wisely so…" Don watched as Martha broke the necklace in two. Having one still around her neck while the other in her hand. "I… choose you Donnie." Martha gently then wrapped the necklace around his neck, but before Don had the chance to look at it Martha pulled him into a hug. He accepted it and did the same.

"Friends forever?" She asked whispering to him.

"Friends forever." Don replied with a smile.

Martha then squeezed him at little tighter. "Thank you, Donnie. For everything." She whispered. After a few more seconds Martha let go, but she still had both of her hands on his shoulders. Without warning, Martha gently placed a kiss on his cheek. Blushing, Don stared at her for a moment while Martha smiled and then turned and walked away.

Don was frozen in his place, watching as Martha opened the door and then paused in the door way to look back at him. Seeing her like this made him to think that he'd never see her again. No. He instantly shook the thought away from his mind as Martha smiled at him one last time before entering the building.

Slowly he placed his hand on his cheek on the exacted spot where Martha kissed him. He smiled to himself; for what he did was the right thing to do. His father would have been proud of him, but he then realized that his own father would be unpleased with him for showing himself to a human. Everything that happened on that day must be kept as a secret from everyone even his own brothers. He sighed, peering down at his own feet as guilt then overwhelmed him, because he now realized that he disobeyed his own father's words.

But then happiness replaced the guilt when Don then gazed through the window of the building. Witnessing Martha's mother standing up with her hands against her mouth as tears run down the sides of her face. She then knelt down, stretching her arms out as Martha ran into them, embracing her mother. Don smiled while turning away to head home, but before he disappeared into the snowy night, he remembered the object that Martha gave to him.

He then picked the necklace up in his hand to see lying on his palm a halved shell with one word carved into it, the word _Friend_.

TMNT ^_^

Martha gazed upon her hand. She held out her share of the necklace staring at her half of the shell with the word _Best_ carved into it. She sighed deeply as silence accompanied her. But not for long when then the sound of church bells began to ring throughout the entire city, telling the people all around the hour of the day. While leaning against the sewer wall near its entrance, Martha listened very carefully to the bells as they rang.

_Dong… Dong… Dong… Dong… Dong… Dong…_

Six O'clock pm.

Martha sighed again while holding her necklace close to herself in a tight grip with both of her hands together. As tears ran down her face she said in a low voice.

"It's been eight years Donatello… and… you're my only hope…"

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Just to give you guys a heads up that the next chapters are going to have Hurt/Comfort in them. ;) Also... please review! ^_^


	7. Chapter 7: The Forgotten Promise

_STOP! For those of you who watched and read my fic many months ago let me say a few things before read. One... my entire story has been edited! Also I am very sorry that it's been over a half of a year since I last update. So for those who have been waiting for this story to be updated... guess what! You get to read it all over again! XD If you want to... but I suggest you do cause I wrote more to the story that are important to know before you continue where you left off. Also as a bonus, here's Chapter 7! XD  
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_Again, I am very sorry it's been a while. So... enjoy! _^_^_  
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_Chapter 7: The Forgotten Promise

Donatello sighed, frustrated while leaning back against his chair. No matter how many times he tinkered with any of his inventions his mind was always distracted from his work. He tried not to think about it, to forget, but the thought of it always kept coming back to him. He took a quick sip of his fifth coffee of the night before glancing over at the handmade clock.

Five minutes till midnight. Up too late again.

Don sighed, setting his mug down, knowing that he would have a lecturing time with eldest brother, Leonardo soon enough. Leo never once approved Don staying up too late working on his inventions. However, this time it wasn't his genius mind keeping him up too late. It was something else. Don never wanted to admit it to his brothers that lately, he was slightly afraid to go to sleep. He couldn't explain what was showing or what was trying to tell him. But for the past few nights, it always kept coming back, and each time it did; it became longer. The thought of it worried him.

Breaking Don away from his thoughts, there was a soft knock on his door.

"Come in." He answered, not bothering to ask who it was. The door to Don's lab opened without making a sound as Leo entered.

"Hey Don, what are you working on?" Leo asked, approaching behind him. The truth was, Don wasn't really working on anything particular. But he knew exactly the reason why Leo came in here in the first place. Quickly, he grabbed the closes thing on his work desk. He actually grabbed the blue prints of his second eldest brother Raphael's shellcycle. He knew because Leo was the only one who knew what was happening with Don during the past few nights. Leo could easily tell that Don was trying his best to not bring up the subject. Obviously, the genius brother of his was failing miserably.

"I'm trying to recalibrate the functions on Raph's shellcycle. He completely trashed it the other night with Casey, thinking that it was a brilliant idea to ride it on the rooftops. It's like they don't even know the meaning of the word 'safety' or 'precaution'. The shellcycle wasn't made for those stunts of theirs. Look here, the…" That's when Leo lost his little brother into the language of the unknown. He chuckled under his breath. Leo was always amazed at Don's work, especially at his young age. He chuckled again, recalling the memory when the television first blew out during the middle of one of his father's soap operas. Don had yet to be the age of thirteen when he fixed it. That's when Don had the livings daylights squeezed out of him by Master Splinter in a way of a thank you. Coming back to reality, Leo sighed, shaking his head as he folded his arms over his plastron. The purple clan turtle was completely oblivious that Leo wasn't really paying any attention to what he was saying at the moment as he continued rambling on about Raph's shellcycle.

"Don."

"And the… hmm?"

"You need to get some rest."

Don turned away from him.

Leo sighed, shaking his head. "Don, I know that you're afraid."

The young turtle looked at him, slightly surprised that his brother knew the truth, and yet at the same time he wasn't.

"I can tell that you're afraid because you keep looking away from me every time I mention it."

Don still had his back faced towards Leo as he continued on.

"Look Don, you can't stay awake all night all because of this dream you've been having. And what's to be afraid of? After what you explained to me about it, it doesn't sound frightening at all."

Don sighed. "Leo, what's happening in the dream right now seems like it's nothing, but what I'm worried about is, is where the dream will lead. Every night, it starts out the same, but each night the dream becomes longer and ends differently. I've been having this dream for a week now. Sure I had weird dreams before, like the one to help Sydney and the others from the underground with the crystals, but that was one time I had that dream. This dream however, is different."

Leo sighed. "And I understand that…" He paused as Don gave him a disagreeable look. "Well maybe I don't, but Don, you can't just ignore it. You have face it before the fear of it consumes you. It's not like it's going to go away all of a sudden. You have face your fear."

Again Don sighed as he turned to face his eldest brother. "I'm not afraid of having dreams, Leo. It's just that I'm afraid of what this dream is trying to tell me and what it's trying to lead me to. Who knows what it is or means. What I'm not happy about is, is why am I the one who's having it?" Don groaned while glancing down at his feet.

"Well I'm not sure about the answer to that, Don, but whatever it is it will come around. But for now you need to go to bed."

"But I'm not… *yawn* tired."

Leo chuckled at him while forcing his little brother up to his feet. "Surrrrrrre you are. Come on, let's get you to bed," said Leo as he dragged his brother towards his bedroom.

"You know, I can walk on my own."

"Yes, but it seems I can't trust you on going to bed so easily." Leo smirked as Don groaned. Neither of them said another word as they traveled through the now quiet, peaceful, vacant lair. Besides the sound of their brother snoring like a lawn mower running over a chainsaw, and the voice of their baby brother talking in his sleep about saving the Queen of Nachos from the evil Emperor of Pickles, it was peaceful enough for a good night's rest. Don was already half asleep as they made it to his bedroom. Leo gently guided his little brother through the maze of his room. His room was just as bad as Mikey's, except his was filled with unfinished or dismantled inventions and his room was a little bit neater than the King of Messes himself. The blue clan turtle laid his brother down on his comfy bed and covered him up well before wishing him a good night before leaving his brother to rest.

_Running. That's what his mind was focused on. To run. Not knowing whether he was running from or towards something. Just run. He breathed air rapidly into his thirsty lungs as he kept running in a place that was unknown to him. Everything around him was a blur in his own eyes; there was nothing he could bring into focus as he ran. He could feel the ground was wet beneath his feet as the sounds of splashing reached him. While the air as well felt damp, he knew that it must have rained not that long ago. But the problem is where was he? The smell, the sounds, this place was unfamiliar to him. Though the question was, how did this all begin? What was he doing before up until now? Sadly he couldn't remember._

_Suddenly his attention was drawn towards a loud scream coming from ahead of him. Was this why he was running? Running towards where that scream was coming from? He shook his head as he picked up his speed towards where he last heard the scream. But as he drew closer, the scream once again was heard; only this time it was worse. It continued to echo around him; the sound of it hurt. He could tell that the person or whatever it was was in a lot of pain. So much that he could almost feel the pain himself. Sorrow, depression, agony, loneliness, he could feel it through the scream of terror. It hurt so much that he wanted it to stop, but it didn't. The scream continued on, becoming worse as the seconds went by. The pain was so unbearable that he didn't even remember when he stopped running. Now he was down on his knees clutching his head hard in hoping to block out the scream._

"_Please…" He begged, "stop." But his pleas were ignored as the scream became worse. "Please!" He begged even louder. "Stop!" But still he was ignored. Tears began to tremble down his face, dripping down towards the ground, creating a tiny puddle as the pain grew worse inside of him. "Please!" He shouted out with all of his might. "STOP!" STOP-Stop-op-op-op-p-p-p._

_Silence._

_Instantly, the scream died away even; the pain that was once there a second ago had vanished. Suddenly, he found himself now walking in a tunnel, however this time he was familiar with his surroundings, unlike where he was before. But how did he get here, was the question. Unknown place, the scream, the pain, and now this, what is going on here? His head started throbbing as he continued to walk down the tunnel. But he paused when he began to hear a small whimper not too far away from where he was. Fear struck through him, not forgetting the pain that was once there. He was then about to turn away until…_

"_Mommy… I… want my… mommy…" He stopped and slowly turned back. Curiously like a child, he followed the voice down the tunnel. Slowly, the tunnel was becoming brighter the further down he went. As he turned the next corner, he froze to find a young girl sitting in a ball shape near the exit._

"_Who's there?" Her scared voice called out, but he couldn't get the words to answer back. "I'm lost…" The girl answered to an unspoken question. Confusion appeared all over his face, for he didn't say a thing; and yet the girl was answering to him as if he did. "You… you will?" Again she answered; still confused by this he looked all around him to find that he was alone with the girl. But who was she answering to then? "You're not going to hurt me, are you?" That question caught his full attention; for some unknown reason, he almost felt as though he had heard that voice before._

"_Why are you hiding?" He jumped when the girl appeared right before him. He stared at the girl with wide eyes; there was no way she could move that fast. It's almost impossible especially at her young age, but there she was, standing right there before him. The girl looked about the age of nine. She had short dark brown hair and forest green eyes. She wore a purple sweater, dark purple mittens, and light blue jeans while her shoes were buried underneath the water._

"_Why are you hiding from me?" Suddenly the expressions upon her face darkened while her voice turned deep. He backed away from her with shock written all over his face. The once shy, helpless girl was now filled with hatred in her eyes. He slowly backed away from her, still keeping his eyes upon her, until he bumped into something from behind. He turned around and jumped in surprise to find the same girl again. He then looked back in front of him to realize that he was surrounded by twins. "Why are you hiding from me?" The twins shouted at him at the same time only then a triplet appeared out of nowhere before him. "Why are you hiding from me?" Again they repeated as a quadruplet appeared. Soon hundreds, no, thousands appeared, closing in on him as they repeated the same six words over and over again. Those words kept chanting through his mind. He soon fell to his knees while clutching his head, just like the horrifying scream he wanted it to stop._

"_Please…" Again he begged, "Stop! I want this all to stop! Haven't I had enough! What is it that you are trying to tell me? TELL ME! Just… just stop." Silence was his only answer until something lifted up his chin. Once again, the little girl from before was standing before him, but this time she was crying with her eyes in the color of red._

"_Why…" She managed to say before chocking over her crying. "Why have you forgotten about me? You… you promised not to. I… I thought you were my friend. How could you do this to me? YOU PROMISED! I thought you were my friend, Donatello…" Don widens his eyes as all of his memories flew passed by before him._

"_Who… who's there?"_

"_I'm lost…"_

"_You… you will?"_

"_You're not going to hurt me, are you?" _

"_You have too many names." _

"_Why are you hiding?" _

"_Look! I don't care what you look like! I just want to find my mommy! Now come out of there already!" _

"_Are you an elf?" _

"_Why are you asking me such a silly question? I told you that I won't be afraid and I'm not." _

"_Donnie? Am I on Santa's nice list?" _

"_Oh! I'm sorry! I… didn't… I…" _

"_Don't you ever scare me like that ever again!" _

"_It's a MONSTER!" _

"_I think he likes you." _

"_You've been living down here all your life?" _

"_You look silly in that." _

"_You're lucky. I don't have any brothers or sisters." _

"_I still I wish I had brothers like yours then I wouldn't be so lonely." _

"_No, all the others kids in my class aren't very nice to me and I don't know why they are! I didn't do anything to them and they treat me… like I'm a nobody." _

"_I'm sorry! I'm sorry! Are you ok? I didn't break anything did I?" _

"_Look Donnie! We did it! We did it!" _

"_Donnie is that the reason why they call this day Black Friday?" _

"_O my gosh! Look Donnie! It's… it's… snowing!" _

"_No. I'm not leaving you. I don't want you to get hurt." _

"_It's all my fault. If I didn't lose my mommy, none of this would ever happen." _

"_I… don't know what to say. No one has ever said anything like that to me before." _

"_Will I ever see you again?" _

"_He told me to give one of the half's of my necklace to my most bestest friend. And he said to choose wisely so…" _

"_I… choose you Donnie." _

"_Friends forever?" Forever-ever-ever-ver-ver-er-er-r-r-r. _

"_Thank you, Donnie. For everything." Everything-verything-thing-ing-ing-g-g-g._

_Soon, everything had vanished before him as the memories drifted away. He was breathless after what he had seen. Those memories he had long forgotten, for they were replaced by the new. How could he forget any of this? These were his childhood memories, memories that should always be treasured inside of yourself. Memories you should always protect by remembering them._

"_But I forgot them, so I failed to protect them." He whispered as he began to cry. Then the sound of giggling reached to him._

"_My name is Martha. What's yours?"_

"_Martha…" He breathed out, remembering her name before the girl standing before him, who claimed to be her, vanished into thin air. "I'm… I'm sorry…" As soon as those words left from his tongue, the same scream erupted through the darkness surrounding him. While at the same time of the scream, he appeared at the same place where this nightmare all began. "No… not again…" The scream continued around him but it was stopped short when another sound came and silenced it. Time froze as a cold chill went down his spin. This sound was loud, louder than the scream itself. It was short and simple, yet at the same time, it was a sound that you never want to hear._

_A gun shot._

"Martha!" Don shouted as he jolted right out of his bed. He breathed in air constantly while regaining his surroundings. That dream, no that nightmare, was something he'd never expected; it was completely different then what he was dreaming for the past few days, which confused him. Was he dreaming those dreams so that they were preparing him for this nightmare? He didn't know. He soon found himself still in his comfy bed, in his messy bedroom. It seemed as though nothing had happened, but he knew that was not the truth. His head throbbed, pounding away at the same beat of his heart pounding underneath his plastron. After noticing a thin layer of sweat that was covering over his body, he soon wiped off part of it upon his forehead. Once he calmed his breathing, he gritted his teeth as he tightened his grip on his covers. He was upset, upset at no one but to himself. All of a sudden he began to hear the sound of thumping from the footsteps coming towards his bedroom. Knowing that his brothers were coming to see if he was all right, he knew for sure that they would ask him about the nightmare. "I can't tell them…" He whispered under his breath before Leo came rushing into his bedroom and Raph and Mikey followed suit.

"Don! Are you alright? What happened?" Leo was the first to reach him.

"Yeah dude, you were, like, screaming." Mikey stood behind Leo as Raph leaned against the wall near the doorway.

"He ya probably had a nightmare."

Don lifted his head, looking up at his brother Raph before peering down again at his knuckles, gripping tightly on his covers.

"Is that true Don?" Leo began, "Did you have that dream again?"

Raph and Mikey stared at their brother dumfounded, wondering what the heck he was talking about.

"Wait a minute, are ya tellin' me that he had this dream before?"Raph had a hint of anger in his voice as he pushed himself off the wall.

Leo sighed turning his attention towards his hotheaded little brother. "Raph, we don't have time..."

"Bawl Crap! Ya keepin' secrets from me? Since how long has this been happenin'?"

"Yeah that's not cool dude, even I don't know anything about this."

Again Leo sighed, looking over his two little brothers before answering.

"He's been having this dream or nightmare for over a week now."

"A week?" Raph exploded. "And since when were ya goin' to tell us, oh Fearless!"

Leo groaned in annoyance.

"When he was ready." Leo gestured towards Don.

Don turned away from them. The atmosphere felt awkward to him since all the attention was now on him. Slowly, he peered over his brothers; seeing them staring at him with worried looks on their faces made him feel slightly annoyed. Silently he looked away from them again.

"Donnie?" Leo gently laid his hand on Don's shoulder. "What happened?"

Don stayed silent. He couldn't tell them, he knows he couldn't for they wouldn't understand. This was something that he had done years ago, before they were even allowed to go to the surface. A place that their father, sensei repeated constantly to them that they were forbidden to go. Also, he had shown himself to a human, which he knew his father would be disappointed in him for this was a secret, a secret that he kept all these years. Thinking about it, it had been about seven years since he met her, right? It'd been seven years, unless…

"L…Leo?" His voice was shaky; he was still not over what happened in the nightmare. All that had happened was still fresh in his mind.

"What is it, Donnie?"

"What day is this?"

Leo tried answering but unfortunately Mikey beat him to it.

"Dude! Today's Friday! Remember? We're in the month of November, the 26th! Actually it does say on the calendar that today is Black Friday."

Don's eyes widened. It'd been eight years. Eight years ago when he first met her; eight long years he'd kept his secret; eight years since he'd made his first friend. And after all this time, he remembers her now? Why now? Why not earlier? Who knew but somewhere in between those years she could have come and tried to see him again, but she didn't; for he had forgotten all about her. Don's grip tightened after realizing the truth. Martha could have come to see him and yet he didn't, making her to believe that he had abandoned her. A sick feeling appeared under his chest. A feeling of guilt for many things that he had done in the past. Firstly, for disobeying his father's words by going to the surface and showing himself to a human. Secondly, for keeping a secret from his family, even his own father, for all those years. And thirdly, himself for forgetting as well as breaking his promise to his first best friend that he ever had. The guilt hurt him, so much that he broke into tears.

"Don! Don! What's wrong? Come on, bro. You got to tell me what's wrong. What happened in that dream or nightmare?"

He was so deep in his thoughts that he had forgotten his brothers were right there. He had to get out; he had to be somewhere else. Anywhere other than here; a place where he could think alone, away from brothers, away from his father, away from anyone. He wanted to be left alone.

"Don? What happened?"

Finally Don looked over at his eldest brother. He could see the concern in the eyes of his brother, while at the same time his eldest brother could see the worry and sadness in his. What could he say? What could he tell them so that he could get out of here? He knew that they wouldn't leave him alone until he spilled, but that was the complete opposite of what he truly wants.

"I… I can't…" Don shuddered as he spoke, tightening his grip again. The nightmare wasn't that horrible to be frightened about unlike the ones he had in the past, but this one would reveal his secret, which he didn't want them to know at all. But to his surprise, Leo just sighed while standing up and patted him on the shoulder. Then his eldest brother began to tell his other siblings to leave. Don watched, bewildered, as Raph and Mikey left his room without any argument. Leo was the last to leave.

"Don, whenever you're ready, you know where I am." Leo stood at Don's doorway for a few more seconds before closing the door behind him.

Don sat alone in his now dark room with shock written all over his face. What just happened? All he said was two little words and his brothers, HIS brothers, just got up and left? This was new; usually they would stay with him until he talked. He slightly smiled to himself. They believed that he was not ready to explain. Well… part of it was true; he definitely didn't want to tell them yet; while the other part was he didn't want to tell them his secret at all. But still, he couldn't keep his secret from his family forever; he had to tell them sooner or later, probably sooner. He sighed, wondering what his family would do after they knew the truth. But what should he do? Leave. That was the first word that popped into his mind. Yes, that's what he needed, just for a little while, to clear his thoughts.

Don peeked his head out of his room to find the balcony was vacant. When he reached the railing that separated him from the fall that led down to the first floor of the lair, he spotted his baby brother Mikey racing online on Mario Kart Wii. He smiled, watching his baby brother completely focused into his game; it was probably the only time when he's focused on something, besides cooking. Don chuckled at the thought. Then he noticed Raph was sitting on the coach near Mikey reading the latest magazine about motorcycles or vehicles. He guessed that his brother was taking a break from his punching bug, unlike someone else he knew. Don looked over to where the dojo was. He was correct, as usual, seeing the shadows behind the doors to the dojo dancing around; he was sure enough that those shadows belonged to his eldest brother. Don sighed; Leo mostly trains out all of them even though Raph was the strongest, Leo was the most skilled. Mikey had the speed and agility, while he himself out of all of his brothers he had the brains. Each of them had their own ability that the others didn't have, when one worked alone things don't go to well, but when they all worked together they could accomplish anything.

But still there are times when things get too complicated. As time went by they grew older and become more independent. Also their interests were different from one another; Mikey playing his video games, reading comic books, and goofing off playing pranks. Raph loved to go hang out with Casey, working out, and racing as well as upgrading his motorcycle. Leo trained, meditated, drank tea with Master Splinter, and read whatever caught his interests. And then there was him, Donatello, who loved to invent, discovering something new, and explore a place that was astounding to his very own eyes. Everything was the way it was supposed to be, right? Everyone was happy, right? Wrong. Truth to be told, lately Don felt a bit lonely. Sure he wanted to be left alone and to have his own privacy, but think about it, whenever did he have some one that he could talk to about what he loved or other things and understand him? Sure he had April and Leatherhead but they had their own lives to get to. Besides April was married and she'd been thinking on having kids while Leatherhead had the accompany of Professor Honeycutt. And there was no way that any of his brothers would be interested in talking to him about what he was into. And it seemed that his brothers already had all the company that they needed. Raph hanging out with Casey, Leo talking to Master Splinter about whatever they talk about, and Mikey… well he did have Klunk and his video games; he seemed to be satisfied enough with what he had.

Don sighed at the thought. All of his brothers had someone that they could talk to and understand them with their same interests, unlike him. He sighed again as he walked silently through the sewers. He was so consumed in his thoughts that he didn't even notice how faraway he was from the lair, let alone when he grabbed his disguise and left. When he finally looked up he found himself at a familiar old tunnel. None of his brothers or his father could ever forget this place; for this was where they trained and lived for the first fifteen years of their lives. The old lair. The last time he was here was when they found their old friend Leatherhead living here, but sadly the roof caved in on him. They believed that he was dead but to their surprise they found him alive, but not in a welcoming place. Remembering that place made a cold chill crawl down his spin. Oh how he loathed that place, using technology to experiment on living creatures, like himself, for evil purposes. Don shook the thoughts away, trying to forget the nightmare that he and his brothers had to go through. Although, why was he here in the first place? Why did his body lead him here while he was distracted in his own thoughts? He wasn't sure.

Curiously, Don peeked into the old lair to find it all cleared out. But didn't the roof cave in on it? Don snapped his fingers. Ah yes, it must have been Bishop and his men who cleared this place out to find Leatherhead buried underneath it. Don shuddered at the name of the man who caused so much pain to his family and friends. That man never gave up on trying getting his hands on his family or anyone else who was not human, for that matter. Don slaps himself; wasn't he just trying to forget those memories? He guessed that memories that you don't want to remember die hard. He wished for the opposite; then he wouldn't have forgotten about… her. He sighed as he looks around the now-clean old lair. A place filled with childhood memories that took its place here even… even…

"_This necklace means a lot to me. My daddy gave it to me on my sixth birthday before… he died." She paused after whispering the last few words. "He told me to give one of the halves of my necklace to my bestest friend. And he said to choose wisely so…" Don watched as Martha broke the necklace in two. Having one still around her neck while the other in her hand. "I… choose you Donnie." Martha gently wrapped the necklace around his neck, but before Don had the chance to look at it Martha pulled him into a hug. He accepted it and did the same_.

Once again Don's eyes widened. _The necklace! _Martha had given him half of her necklace as a symbol of their friendship. But because she was a human, he couldn't wear the necklace so that his family wouldn't discover what he had done. In other words, he had to hide it in a much hidden place that no one, even his father, would find it. Don right away rushed over towards where his room used to be. Even though the roof collapsed on this place twice, he hoped that it was still there. He began to feel the walls to his old room carefully. Finally, much to his relief he had found it. When Donatello was younger, but old enough that he could have his own room, he had found a brick on one of his walls loosened. After finding this great discovery, he began using it to hide things that were special to him. A smile appeared across Don's face. Now lying on the palm of his hand was the necklace that Martha gave to him many years ago. He cuddled it in his hands before placing it around his neck. The cold metal touching his leather skin made him have goose bumps. Do turtles have goose bumps? Don shrugged at the thought. But before Don could leave, he began to hear the bells from the St. Thomas Church on Fifth Avenue calling out to the city the song of the hour. Don didn't know what the song was called but it was beautiful to stop and listen to.

Although, it was sad that people didn't even realize how lucky they were with the life that they were given. They were blinded by greed and selfishness, not even caring about the surroundings that they live in. Or to stop and listen to where they stand in life. Don sighed trying his best to hum to the song, but to his disappointment all great things must come to an end. The bells to the church soon ended the song and began to play the hour of the day.

_Dong… Dong… Dong… Dong… Dong… Dong…_

After the bells had finished Don had counted six, in other words the time currently was six O'clock. Suddenly, time froze still all around him.

"_I just thought of something."_

"_What?" She turned around and looked at him._

"_Will I ever see you again?" They both fell into complete silence._

"_I… I don't know. Maybe. Do you leave anywhere near?" She shook her head._

"_No, my mommy and I live in a very small town very far away from here. I do really want to see you again."_

"_Yeah, me too. Maybe the next time you come to visit New York City we should see each other." He smiled._

"_That's a great idea!"_

"_But the problem is how would I know that you're here?"_

"_Oh… right. Maybe I'll just come here on the same day like today only um…"_

"_Yeah! Like in the future and we should meet somewhere like were we first met. Yeah! And we should meet at around six O'clock! What do you think?"_

"_Dude! Today's Friday! Remember? We're in the month of November, the 26__th__! Actually it does say on the calendar that today is Black Friday."_

Right away Don dashed right out of the old lair into the tunnels. _Dong…_ He had to hurry. _Dong…_ He had to make it there on time. _Dong…_ He couldn't be late. _Dong… _He promised her that he would wait for her no matter how long it would take. _Dong…_ But what if she was already there the years before and actually believed that he truly abandoned her? _Dong…_ Donatello slowed himself down to a complete stop at a corner. What if it was true? What if she was not there at all? What if she made new friends? What if she forgotten about him? What if she couldn't make it at all? What if she went bankrupt? What if she was…

Enough. No more ifs or buts, for there was only one way for him to truly know if any of those questions were true. Don took a deep breath before peeking his head around the corner to where he first laid his eyes on the girl, who became his first friend that he ever had and met eight years ago.

* * *

TKT: *inching away inching away*

Audience: O_O **TMNT-KREATIVE-TANKE!** *picks up anything sharp, pointy, and **VERY DANGEROUS OBJECTS**. and starts chasing after TKT* DX

TKT: *runs away* PLEASE DON'T KILL ME! I HAVE TO BE ALIVE TO WRITE THE NEXT CHAPTER! AND PLEASE REVIEWWWWWwwwwww... ^_^;


	8. Chapter 8: Hot Chocolate

YAY! A new chapter! XD And I updated a lot sooner this time! XD

Thanks so much for those of you who faved, watched, and commented! XD I hope you all enjoy this one!

TKT: *checks on ebay* Darn! Still nothing about Nick selling them! So that means I still don't own them... *sniff* ;_; Although if I did then the fans will blame me for ruing TMNT! O.O;

* * *

Chapter 8: Hot Chocolate

The sewer water calmly crawled by the feet of the turtle in the purple bandana. Don stood there motionless as Martha had been in his vision of the way he had found her when they first met, when she was only a nine-year-old girl, sitting in a shape of a ball near the exit, cold, scared, alone, and completely lost.

"_I'm lost…"_ Her words echoed through his head.

Don sighed as a smile spread across his face. But that was eight years ago, the present was completely different. Martha was no longer that helpless little girl who was lost and new to the city that surrounded her. In the present she was grown up into a seventeen year old teenager, who was waiting for him after so long without any contact. The vision of Martha as a nine-year-old girl in Don's eyes, faded away into reality. Don sighed in relief as the vision was replaced by the scene before him.

TMNT ^_^

Martha sat there calmly, waiting. It had been so long since she last saw him, what would he look like? A turtle, of course, but after so long you never know what had happened during the time since you last saw him. Martha sighed; Don should have been there by then. Where was he? Had he forgotten about her? No, of course not, he'd promised that he'd be there no matter what. _It's not like you did any better yourself,_ a small voice whispered to her. Martha shuddered, knowing that it was the truth. Gently, she cuddled herself closer when a soft breeze came and crawled around her skin.

TMNT ^_^

Don felt the cold breeze as well, knowing that winter was approaching fast; he tightened his disguise closer to his body. But his eyes never left Martha. He always imagined her as a nine-year-old girl, and he'd begun expecting her to return at that age. But his eyes did not deceive him, because there, sitting a few feet away from where he stood, was a seventeen year old girl named Martha. Slowly, after taking a slight breath, Don approached her.

TMNT ^_^

Martha lifted her head instantly, wondering if she heard something. She looked around her to find that nothing was out of the ordinary. But her instincts told her something else. Something was there, only her eyes couldn't see it. All of her attention was drawn towards the sewers. She just kept staring at the opening, believing that she might have seen a familiar shadow. Right away, although she was not expecting it, a silhouette of a person was slowly coming into view. She noticed that the figure was calm and silent. But the person stopped before she could get a good look at who it was.

"Don…Donatello?" She slowly breathed out the breath that she hadn't realized she was holding, letting her lungs have a break.

TMNT ^_^

Don smiled underneath the shadow that consumed him. Hearing her voice again, besides the tone of the age difference, brought joy to him. Don then relaxed his shoulders as the intense atmosphere vanished from around him.

"It's been a while, hasn't it?" He spoke to her in a calm, gentle voice for the first time in years as he revealed himself to her, walking into the light from the moon.

Martha hurried up to her feet as soon as she caught sight of him. He had grown a lot over the years; he stood about the same height as she did. But his features still looked the same, besides the difference of his bandana, his age, the sound of his voice, and what he was wearing; he still looked like he did at the age of nine. Martha broke into tears as she ran into his open arms and embraced him.

Don wrapped his arms around her and did the same. They held each other for a while before they broke apart. Don smiled at her, but Martha gave him a small smile and then looked away from him, avoiding his eyes. Don frowned at this, wondering what was bothering her; he gently placed his hand on her shoulder.

"What's wrong?" He asked her.

She hesitated at the question as she kept her eyes away from his.

"Martha?" He lightly squeezed her shoulder.

She sighed before glancing over to him, then back at what she was looking at before. "I'm sorry." Martha finally said in a low whisper.

Don stared at her, puzzled at what she just said. "Sorry? For what?" he asked her in a calm tone.

Martha took a deep breath before embracing him again. "I'm sorry that I didn't come any time sooner. I'm sorry that you had to wait. I'm sorry that-"

"Martha." Don pulled her away to look at her. "There's nothing to be sorry about. Remember what I said? I said that no matter how long it took, as long as you came and visited then that's all that matters. Right?"

Martha nodded slowly, but his words had no effect on her. "But you don't understand! I didn't come and visit you the years before because I was busy or I didn't have the money. It was because I'd complete forgotten all about you!"

Don stared at her, bewildered from her words. So she had forgotten about him? Well he had too, but how strange it was that she forgot about him while at the same time he did as well, and yet here they were. Strange…

"Please, forgive me."

Don snapped out of his thoughts to see Martha beginning to walk away. Quickly, before she became out of his reach, he grabbed her wrist, stopping her in mid-step. "Martha wait."

Slowly, she turned towards him.

"I do understand. It so happens that I should apologize as well."

Martha looked at him as if he were just saying that to make her feel better, but his eyes showed nothing but the truth.

"I'm sorry that I'd forgotten about you too." He confessed, but Martha kept silent. "So…" He began to say, "There's nothing for you to worry about because you're sorry and I'm sorry about the same thing. In other words we're pretty much even." He gave her a tiny smile and, to his relief, she did the same. Quickly, they shared a small hug before Don led her out of the sewers and onto the beach.

"This was always one of my favorite spots to visit when I was kid," said Don as he dug his feet into the sandy ground and breathed in the salty air. "It was one of those visits when I found you." He turned to look at Martha. "After you left, I always thought of our little adventure together whenever I came back to visit this spot." Then he looked away from her, taking his attention towards the sea.

"What made you to forget?" She asked.

Don pondered it for a moment. "Well… I guess as time goes on you tend to forget things as you grow older. And… things just happen in life to make you to forget. To tell you the truth, a lot of things have happened to my family and I. And… I couldn't wear the necklace you gave me or my father would realize that I got it from you. I had to hide it so no one could find it. So I forgot about you because I had nothing else from you to remember you by." Don sighed after he finished his answer.

"I guess it goes the same for me." Martha said with a shrug as if it were no big deal. "But what made you to remember?"

Don shuddered, remembering the nightmare he'd had recently. "I had a dream about you that helped me to remember," He explained; "What about you?"

Martha suddenly flinched, then hesitated a bit before answering, "I… I was cleaning my room when I found my half of the necklace, and that's when I remembered you." She slightly smiled to him before returning her gaze to the ocean.

Don sensed, from the way she responded, that there was more to her story. But he dismissed the thought. "It's funny how we both forgot and yet remembered our friendship at the same time so that we could meet this year." He slightly smiled.

"Yeah…"

The two of them continued to watch the small waves crashing against the shore and slowly crawling up to them in silence. The salty water came up a foot away from where they stood, only to slide back into the ocean as the next wave came in. They watched for a little while longer before Martha started coughing again; then her body began to shiver. Don did not like the sound of those coughs. Being the doctor, even though he hated being called that, in the family, he was concerned about her health.

"Martha? Are you alright?"

"I'm fine. I'm just little cold from this horrible weather, and breathing it in isn't doing much good for my throat, either."

Don sighed. "Yeah… I know how that is. Having to be cold-blooded is not helpful at all." He then wrapped his disguise tighter to himself as the wind started to pick up again. "You know… how about we go to some place warm before we freeze to death?" He suggested.

"Yeah… that sounds nice." Martha wrapped her arms around Don's right triceps as he led the way.

"I know the perfect place near here," he began to say; "Martha, have you ever had hot chocolate before?"

She shrugged. "Once, but that was a while ago. I kind of accidently… burnt my tongue."

Don chuckled under his breath. "Well… that's why it's called _hot_ chocolate."

She lightly punched him in the arm. "Hey, I dare you to not taste anything for a week!"

The turtle stumbled a bit before looking at her with shock written on his face. "Whoa! It was that bad?"

"Yep, I was little at the time, and I thought it was the warm chocolate milk that my mother always gave me." Knowing what he was thinking, she smiled at him; "Don't worry. I'm fine now."

Don relaxed himself. "That's good. Maybe we should go somewhere else then."

"No, I think hot chocolate is fine. Besides, I want to see what it really tastes like."

"Alright, but don't burn yourself."

She lightly punched him in the arm again, and he laughed.

The words _Uncle Joe's Cafe _glowed bright red on the two teenagers as they approached the small building slowly. Don would occasionally look at Martha as they walked side by side. Something wasn't right, and he knew it. Don had seen the evidence on their way there. Every now and then when they were about to pass someone, anyone, Martha would hesitate or look away. But why was that? Don wondered. It didn't seem to matter at first but by then something was off.

Don soon took his attention away from his thoughts as they entered the building. The café was the size any other café would be. Counters surrounded the area where the waitresses and the waiters would serve or pick up the food, while booths took up the rest of the space outside of the counter area.

"Welcome!" shouted a man, who appeared that he hadn't exercised in his entire life. "What would it be, lad?"

"We would like two hot chocolates, please." Don said politely, unaware that Martha flinched from the man's outburst.

"Would you like some marshmallows to go with that?"

"Yes, sir," said Don.

"And what about you, Miss?"

Martha didn't answer, but swallowed, staring at the man before her.

"Umm… Miss? Would you like some marshmallows on your hot chocolate?" The man asked again, slowly, to make sure she heard him.

Don stared at her, confused. "Martha?" He asked, placing his hand on her shoulder.

"Hmm? What?" Martha answered to him right away as she looked away from the man, towards Don.

"Would you like some marshmallows on your hot chocolate?" Don asked, this time, to her.

"Oh! Yes, sure." She said as though nothing had happened.

"Alright! Two hot chocolates, with marshmallows, coming up!" The man shouted happily as he turned away from them, but if anyone had looked carefully at the man, they would have seen him frowning slightly.

"Are you alright?" Don asked.

"Hmm? Oh! Yes, I'm fine. Why do you ask?" She looked at him.

Now he was really confused. What just happened? One second she was quiet, staring at the manger, and then the next she was talking, looking at him as if nothing had happened. This didn't make any sense. There was more on his mind that he wanted to ask her about, but right then didn't seem a good time to ask.

"Don?"

The ninja shook his head slightly after realizing he'd been staring at Martha for the past few minutes. "Sorry, I had something on my mind."

"Like what?"

"Umm…." _Crap,_ he thought. _What am I going to say?_ "Umm… I was wondering… if you would like to… go to Central Park?"

She smiled at him. "Sure! I have never been to Central Park before. I've heard great things about that place. Maybe we should go there right after we grab our hot chocolate."

_That was close,_ Don thought once more, relieved. But he wasn't entirely relieved after noticing the tone of Martha's voice on her last statement. _Why is she in a hurry? We just got here, _Don wondered, he was about to ask her something but... "Alright, to Central Park it is." He said that instead while smiling.

"And here you go lad! Two hot chocolates with marshmallows!" The man said happily as he handed Don the hot beverages.

"Thank you; how much, sir?" Don was about to pull out his money, but the manger just waved him off.

"No need lad. It's all on me."

"S-sir? For free?"

"Sure! I mean you got yourself a fine lady right there. I'm just helping out by making your date a lot easier, son."

"Oh! Uh… thank you, yeah that does make it a lot easier."

"Well good, now I know that we just met and all, but you better take good care of that girl of yours. This world is not what it used to be."

"Don't worry, I will."

"Good. Now you better get a move on. It's seems that your date is waiting for ya."

"Yeah, I better. Thanks, again!" The manger just waved him off. Don followed Martha out of the café. "Here, it's a little hot so I think you should wait a bit for it to cool down." Don gently handed Martha her hot beverage.

"Thanks," she said, taking her drink in hand. They soon came across a very busy street and waited for the sign to turn to go. When it did, they began to cross it, but just before Martha made it to the other side; she was distracted by a sudden sneeze storm. Constantly, she sneezed over and over again, which made it impossible for her to see where she was going. Over the sound of her sneezing, she could have sworn that she heard someone calling out her name, but she couldn't see who that someone was.

When her final sneeze was out and she was able to see again, she found herself in a frightening situation. Her body became frozen as her eyes grew wide in fear. She couldn't move, and a car was coming straight at her with its highlights blazing in her eyes. Her heart was pounding in her ears as she watched the car, in slow motion, coming towards where she stood. It all happened so slowly and yet so very quickly when she felt herself being yanked right out of the car's way.

"Martha! Are you alright?" Shouted a familiar voice.

Slowly, with much difficulty, she opened her eyes to find the world spinning. All she could see was a giant green and purple blur.

"Martha?" The green blur spoke, concerned.

After blinking a few times, Martha found herself in the arms of her savior, Donatello. "What happened?" she groaned.

Don sighed in relief. "You almost got hit by a car. How are you feeling?"

"You saved me?"

Don began to rub the back of his head. "Yeah… I—" But he was suddenly cut off when Martha wrapped her arms around his neck and knocked him over onto his shell. His cheeks slowly became a very dark green. Lucky for him, Martha didn't notice. She pulled herself up to her feet. Don followed suite and began to brush the dirt off of him. "Heh…" He chuckled. "Brings back memories, doesn't it?"

Martha pondered it for a moment, thinking what memory he was talking about, before joining in with him. "Yeah, but there was snow on the ground," she pointed out.

"True, but it still counts."

Martha rolled her eyes at him. "Whatever."

"Are you sure you're alright? I mean, sneezing like that almost cost your life." Don said after he was done cleaning himself.

Martha sighed. "I'm fine, Don. Don't worry."

_That's what I'm afraid of,_ he thought. "Well, alright then. If you say so."

"Don, I'm fine! Now quit worrying!"

He held up his hands as a sign of surrendering. "Alright, alright, I'll stop worrying." He smiled.

"Good, now are you going to show me Central Park, or not?" She grinned at him.

He ginned back. "To Central Park we go."

Martha giggled at his silliness before a sneeze came out of nowhere.

"Here," He handed his hot chocolate over to her, "This will warm you up."

"Thanks," she said, taking the drink in hand, "But, what happened to mine?"

"Umm… I believe it's already drained into the sewers by now."

"Oh…"

Neither of them spoke another word as they continued heading towards Central Park. Don would still peer over to Martha every time they were about to pass someone. Sure enough, she would still hesitate or look away.

The seventeen-year-old wasn't aware of Don staring at her every now and then. She was mainly focused on getting to Central Park, a place where she believed that hardly anyone would be at this time of night. She was anxious to get there. She would run if she could, but sadly she did not know the way. Martha was disappointed about that, but on the happier side, she could feel her fingers again from the warmth coming from her hot chocolate. Thinking of hot chocolate, she took her first sip of it. It was still a little too hot for her tastes, but she smiled after feeling the warmth from it trickle down her throat, slowly warming her up.

"Hey, Martha? Look." Don elbowed her gently before pointing straight ahead.

Her eyes followed to where he was pointing to find, much to her excitement, a whole bunch of trees instead of office buildings ahead of them. As they continued to walk at their same pace, Martha's eyes were glued onto the trees, watching them, as if she believed that they might disappear somehow. Soon the trees came closer and closer in her sight, something from as tall as a tiny speck into something that stood ten feet taller than she.

Donatello smiled at her excitement. He could tell that she had always dreamed of coming here, and her wish was granted once they arrived right outside of Central Park. But before he could do anything, he found himself being dragged into the park by an over-excited teenager. He laughed at this when he began to run with her through the park. They ran in all sorts of different directions, no care in the world of where there excitement led them too. They soon found themselves in an open field with baseball fields to their left and a pond to their right. Tired from all that running, both of them at once fell to the cool, grassy, wet ground on their backs and stared up at the sky. But all they could see was nothing but clouds covering everywhere, even moon wasn't visible anymore.

Suddenly, Don heard Martha gasp. He was about to ask her the famous question again, but he kept his mouth shut when he noticed something was in the air, falling. Snow. It was beginning to snow. Chunks of it fell gently from the sky towards the Earth. This was the first snow in months since February, and now there they were witnessing a fog of white slowly making its way down towards them.

"Brings back memories, doesn't it?" Martha chuckled under her breath before sticking her tongue out.

Don smiled and shook his head, remembering the memory of them in the alley. "It sure does." He whispered before joining in with her.

Not long after, the two of them grew tired of sitting on the ground. After helping each other up, they quickly found a bench nearby, close to the pond, and relaxed themselves. The water glistened as snowflakes landed one by one on the liquid ground, creating tiny ripples which moved silently across the water. Across the pond, the Belvedere Castle stood high above them while the lights from the city glowed through the falling snow.

Martha leaned against her friend's shoulder, enjoying the scenery that surrounded them. That was when she spotted something in the corner of her eye. She squinted her eyes at it, trying her best to see what it was. She smiled before she began giggling under her breath.

"What's so funny?" Don asked.

Martha continued to smile, shaking her head, and simply pointed out what it was.

Don looked to where she was pointing before bursting into laughter. "Well, that's ironic!" He laughed. After years of him and his brothers living in New York, never did they notice what places where called, more importantly ponds that they were currently living underneath. They had been living in the sewers right under this exact pond for who knew how long, and they didn't even bother to notice to read the sign that said that the pond was called _Turtle Pond_.

Sadly, the enjoyment of laughter was interrupted by the sound of coughs, harsh ones. Ones that sound like the person were choking on something. Martha placed one hand over her mouth and the other on her chest as the coughing continued. It seemed like hours before she could get the last cough out of her and settle down.

Don felt furious and yet frightened during the whole time it happened. Now he was sure that Martha wasn't telling the truth at all about her health. "Mar—"

"Please Don, I'm fine." She cut him off.

Don had a hint of a growl under his breath. This was serious. This was something that he just could not ignore. "You call this fine? Martha, why are you lying to me? I've seen the evidence and this does not look fine. Heck! You almost died because of your sneezing! You've been coughing, sneezing, and shivering ever sense we left the sewers. Why—"

"Donatello!" Martha shouted as she moved away from him, but in the process of doing so, she suddenly felt something scorching on her right arm. She screamed in pain, realizing that she had spilled her almost-filled hot chocolate all over her arm. It had already soaked right through the sleeve of her black jacket, now going for her skin. She jumped up to her feet in a hurry while forcing her jacket off, as she ran over towards the pond, letting her arm cool in the water. She cried, seeing that some of her skin was peeling off as she scrubbed the rest of the hot chocolate off of her. Once it was all gone, she scanned her arms to see if anymore damage was upon them. She froze, realizing something, but it was already too late. Slowly, she turned her gaze over to where Don was to find him staring wide-eyed at her.

_HOLY! SHELL!_ Don was shock from what he was seeing. He was speechless, angry, upset and… and there were so many emotions that he couldn't even identify as so many questions buzzed through his head. All he could do was stare at her, her arms revealing what she had been hiding from him this whole time. Bruises, scars, sores, even blisters covered her arms. They looked like they had been mangled by someone twice as strong as he. All he could say… was nothing.

Martha stared back at him as tears continued to fall from her face. Her mind was spinning. What could she say? Would he treat her the same as everyone else did? Her world began to fade from her. She could feel herself falling as gravity pulled her down with no resistance. The last thing she heard was him calling out her name before she surrendered herself to the darkness.

* * *

TKT: Well that's it for... AHHHHHHHHHHHHH! DX

Readers: AFTER HER!

TKT: Great! Not only I'm being chased by the Purple Dragons! (read my one-shot called, _The Script Called: Chaos. _You'll understand what I'm saying. ~_^) Now I'm being chased by the readers! DX Oh! And please review! It will make my day and may help me to update faster and MAYBE STOP THESE GUYS FROM KILLING ME! DX Pretty please. ^_^

Ps. And about the pond being called_ Turtle Pond_ is true! I stumbled upon it while I was bored one day and I was exploring Google Earth and I wanted to find where the guys where right before the _Turtles Forever_ movie! And I just had to put it in there! XD


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